“I’m learning the car as we go”: Full radio from Hamilton’s difficult Ferrari debut

41 comments on ““I’m learning the car as we go”: Full radio from Hamilton’s difficult Ferrari debut”

1. 

   Osnola
   17th March 2025, 18:14

   Still not to bad for a first race in a new car with a new engineer.
   All those dissapointed a putting the bar to high for now.
   It was not if the ferrari was a excellent car.
   1. 

      Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
      17th March 2025, 20:19

      Suddenly this is a thing, apparently. You don’t need to be on the car to understand the communication.

      Others have moved teams and got on with it right away.
      1. 

         MichaelN
         18th March 2025, 8:46

         It takes some time for everyone. But nobody gets as much attention as Hamilton, the most successful driver in all of F1 history.

         Heck, we still have people using the “getting better” excuse for Piastri losing to Norris. Two years on!
   2. 

      Ferdi
      18th March 2025, 9:17

      Didn’t hear Max at all about this when he took his first drive in a RedBull, and first win, on the same day. With Lewis nr of WDCs the audience is imho perfectly entitled to expect more of him.
      1. 

         N
         18th March 2025, 10:24

         Hamilton also didn’t have these problems on his McLaren or Mercedes debuts either, it’s almost like his new teams first language isn’t English or something.
         1. 

            bosyber (@bosyber)
            18th March 2025, 12:14

            At the time they also had a lot more opportunity for testing I’d say, definitely a whole lot more when Hamilton started, but also still when he switched to Mercedes as well as when Verstappen got into F1 and also into the Red Bull, he’d been doing quite a bit of work with that team before.

            Anyway, this certainly doesn’t seem like there’s a perfect understanding of what the driver needs nor from him what works best in this car, though the circumstances certainly weren’t ideal either.
         2. 

            pcxmac (@pcxmac)
            19th March 2025, 4:26

            Listening to the tone of Lewis and his Race engineer speaks quite a lot. There is a big gulf to bridge there me thinks.

            I think the two biggest glaring issues are :

            > when the mess it up, they don’t even acknowledge it, and carry on like nothing happened.
            > they can’t react to change at all, or they have a program and it’s the way it’s gotta go.

            It sounds like the strategy team / race engineers and the leadership really need to focus on their own performance and find ways to team build / and excel. They sound very recalcitrant and unable to react. Especially when you listen to Lewis tell his Engineer to back off so many times. It’s like there is a program and it just has to go through, and adaptation or change is not possible with in the scope of a race. Again, this sounds like people need to show up to work more and there needs to be simulations / exercises for those guys to become more comfortable adapting and focusing on whats really important, achieving the best race possible.
      2. 

         MacLeod (@macleod)
         19th March 2025, 8:29

         Max had it simple he went from a Ferrari engine to a Renault engine … But Max would spend all days in the sim untill he is sure he knows the tools by heart. He even could use the knowlegde of the Ferrari engine and deployment against Kimi to keep him behind.
   3. 

      Colin
      18th March 2025, 12:46

      Alonso won his first race with Ferrari.
      1. 

         N
         18th March 2025, 15:33

         and what? Hamilton could very well have won had the tire gamble paid off. It still wouldn’t mean there wasn’t issues, it also doesn’t mean their wasn’t issues Alonso had to deal with, or Verstappen during his first race/win with Redbull when Rosberg took Hamilton out and Redbull took Riccardo out of contention.
         1. 

            Colin
            18th March 2025, 22:57

            “And what?” is numerous people have made the excuse for Hamilton, including himself, that he’s still learning the car and the team. I’m just pointing out the fact that Alonso still managed a win. Several, in his first season with Italy, in fact.
2. 

   Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
   17th March 2025, 18:26

   Shows how complicated it is to learn a new car. I think Lewis will probably have to spend the first half of the season learning the car, working with the engineer. This was probably expected. What’s encouraging though is the gap to Leclerc is not massive.
3. 

   F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
   17th March 2025, 18:45

   Various drivers have jumped in a car they never driven before and did just fine. Last year Oliver Bearman drove 3 different cars – Nick de Vries jumped into multiple different cars back in 2023 I think and Max jumped into the Red Bull and won the race.

   Lewis had multiple test with older cars – had winter testing – had effectively 3 months to learn the steering wheel/processes as well as 3 training sessions so far more time than most rookies/reserve drivers and on top of that he is the 2nd most experienced F1 driver.

   I know a not popular opinion on this British forum but it was just a disappointing performance of a multi world champion and that is down to Lewis and not his engineer nor the Ferrari nor that it is all new.

   Did we hear similar complaints from or excuses for Hulkenburg, Sainz, Ocon or any of the rookies – no.
   1. 

      David
      17th March 2025, 18:54

      Be prepared for a season of this.

      Lewis is over the hill but his fanbase (which as you say include much of the British press) seem to think that he has magical powers and will be competitive in a new team at 40.

      Not going to happen.

      Personally I found his attitude inside the car over the weekend to be embarrassing. He was making all the right noises outside the car in pre-season but as soon as things mattered he was straight into his usual pattern of making excuses and blaming the team for everything.

      Ferrari have made a serious blunder.
      1. 

         Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
         17th March 2025, 19:25

         A very unfair comment. If you had actually noticed anything over the years, it is that Lewis quite often comes over a bit stressed and short in radio conversations with his engineer. He has been doing it for years with Bono, ever since Mercedes did not have everything their own way. That was with someone he knows very well, so it is bound to take some getting used to with a new team/engineer. This was the first race and under quite stressful conditions so I think they both handled it quite well.

         Charles did not exactly set the world on fire did he.
      2. 

         Ferdi
         19th March 2025, 10:31

         The expectations around Hamilton are just not realistic, hence the debate about him all the time. Apart from his fanbase and the UK media, it is widely known by now that Lewis’ nr of WDCs do not reflect his actual capabilities.

         He surely is a gifted and top driver but this distortion derives from him having driven a car that displayed the longest dominance streak this sports has ever seen; 8 straight years. That is quite exceptional. For an entire regulatory period just one car won the WCC, 8 years in a row. It just was unprecedented. He happened to be in that car. And we all know people have extreme difficulty in separating driver performance from car performance, even the insiders in this sport. Doesn’t diminish Lewis, he is one of the better ones out there, but he is not near the all time greats, just in stats. He was flattered by his car. Good for him, pity his fanbase cannot be more honest about it.
   2. 

      Robert (@rob8k)
      17th March 2025, 18:55

      This is one of the worst takes I have ever read.

      You will always have a multi world champions take pushed onto the feed over other drivers. Doesn’t mean the other drivers are not making excuses to their engineers.

      Although it wasn’t a dream race, they gambled on staying out and if a red flag came out then they would have some solid points.

      I still don’t understand why certain fans keep diminishing other people achievements just cause they don’t like them.
   3. 

      Edvaldo
      17th March 2025, 19:18

      The difference is that nobody expected anything from these guys, they were filling a spot and that’s it.

      Hamilton qualified right behind Leclerc and got stuck for most of the race, then lost a better result due to the team missing the cue for inters.

      That’s it. Then Piastri passed him and would pass Leclerc too in a couple of laps, he was much faster than both.

      And people should stop with this ‘British forum’ talk to shield themselves from critics. If the argument holds water, it won’t matter who you’re talking about. It definitely wasn’t the debut of dreams, but Ferrari as a whole was poor in this race.
      1. 

         Tim
         18th March 2025, 9:47

         When you get the call saying you have to drive an F1 car tomorrow, it doesn’t matter if people around do or do not expect something from you. You’re going to be shaking. Those young guys was able to keep their heads cool. But Lewis always has been quite weak mentally (re: Nicole era), which is completely fine and doesn’t necessarily make you a bad driver. The problem is a seven-time world champion, in a Ferrari, once probably the best F1 driver in the world, was

         stuck for most of the race

         behind Albon in a Williams, and then proceeded to that typical of him demeanor of throwing toys out of the pram.
         I love Ferrari and respect Lewis, but the harsh reality is that it was just sad to watch. I sincerely still hope that we will see the moments he shines in full glory of a great champ through this season. But, I hate to say it, but it’s always better to leave on a high. There are still great things and achievements to do.
         1. 

            bosyber (@bosyber)
            18th March 2025, 12:17

            A Williams that qualified ahead and raced at a similar pace; it’s not as if Williams is by definition bad (recall the times in 2014,15 when they had a great engine but little downforce and were hard to pass in races).
         2. 

            Edvaldo
            18th March 2025, 12:33

            I’m not talking about pressure or anything, i’m saying if it was bearman qualifying just behind Leclerc, spending some laps ahead of him, leading for a lap and then finishing 2 seconds off him, NOBODY would be saying it was a poor performance.

            Ferrari was 4th fastest this race and got the strategy wrong, not much to do there.
            1. 

               David
               18th March 2025, 12:56

               Sorry, I forgot Bearman was a 7-time WDC.
            2. 

               Edvaldo
               18th March 2025, 13:25

               That’s why i’m talking about different expectations.

               Are you even reading, dude?
   4. 

      Jere (@jerejj)
      18th March 2025, 7:14

      @f1statsfan Bearman drove two different cars last season to be precise, & for that matter, De Vries drove three team cars in 2023, but only one of them in competitive sessions.
      Anyway, various drivers over the years have indeed done just fine or even better following team changes, so barely any excuses, especially when also considering the off-season preparation time.
   5. 

      DrG (@drgraham)
      18th March 2025, 13:50

      Jeez – can you ‘cannot bear Hamilton being the most successful driver in history’ hear yourselves?

      None of you seem to even begin to appreciate the sheer complexity of just the steering wheel controls being entirely different and doing entirely different things to what he has largely engineered himself over the years.

      This is a guy that puts a copy steering wheel in a bag and spends hours learning the settings – in 2008 – no 30k practice simulator at home because they had not been invented yet!

      Different languages, different cars, different methodology, different engineer – etc

      Due to Toto he has not even had the ‘ok you can do the end of contract work with new team bit’

      Instead – in a seriously tricky race in seriously tricky conditions, in his first race in a car that is 4th fastest at best, he qualifies 2 tenths behind the fastest qualifier on the grid, and finishes right behind him all the while having the above instructions…

      I have no doubt he is going to take some time to get up to speed, he learnt Italian in a few months for f2 – it will return.
4. 

   Jim from US (@jimfromus)
   17th March 2025, 19:40

   HAM was disappointing. Telling the engineers to leave him alone is not working with the engineers. And then complaining he didn’t know it was going to rain is his fault. The engineers know more about the cars than you do HAM because you’re new. Use K1 when they tell you to use K1. Later in the season so what you want but not now. I don’t want the it’s all new excuse when you’re actively telling the engineers you don’t want their input.
   1. 

      David BR (@david-br)
      18th March 2025, 11:38

      @jimfromus Brilliant advice from someone clearly far more knowledgeable about Formula 1 cars and how to drive them than Hamilton. Maybe you should write personally instead of wasting your deeply informed wisdom on some internet forum?
      Seriously, are we going to have weeks/months of this anti-Hamilton drivel on these pages while Hamilton gets up to speed? Tedious beyond belief.
      1. 

         BenHur
         18th March 2025, 11:59

         Maybe not, if they retire right away. One hopes.
      2. 

         Jim from US (@jimfromus)
         18th March 2025, 12:52

         I am not knowledgeable in racing but I am hold and have joined a new firm a few years ago. I know a lot about what I do as I have over 30 years experience BUT I also realize that I know very little about the firm I am now working in. That is where HAM is making a mistake. Because on the one hand, he admits he doesn’t know the car but at the same time he is telling the engineers that do know the car to shut up. That is pure arrogance.
         1. 

            Edvaldo
            19th March 2025, 13:39

            It for sure was very useful advice, to use the battery to overtake. He probably wasn’t aware of that, having raced these engines for 11 years.
5. 

   Anon A. Mouse
   17th March 2025, 20:01

   He follows other cars past the Safety Car
   Why are we going past the Safety Car? We’ve all passed the Safety Car, is that okay?

   I don’t know if there was a rule change regarding Safety Car behavior, but it seemed to me that the SC picked up the wrong car as the leader. At the time it should have picked up Norris but I think it picked up Tsunoda. Otherwise there shouldn’t have been a wave by because they weren’t lapped traffic. This was never mentioned on broadcast and I haven’t seen anyone talking about it yet. Am I just mistaken? @KeithCollantine
   1. 

      Jere (@jerejj)
      18th March 2025, 7:07

      The SC mistakenly picked up Hulkenberg, who was subsequently freed to join the pack at the back before any unlapping procedures, which took unnecessarily long.
      His pass on the SC actually happened on the world feed on the S/F straight, which I immediately noted at the time.
6. 

   MichaelN
   17th March 2025, 20:04

   I admit I got confused halfway through the transcript. It reads like they’re playing piano on the dials while also trying to race a car.

   Can they change the info on the screens or is it a default from the ECU? Seems like Hamilton really likes to know how many laps are left!
7. 

   BenjaminS (@benihana)
   17th March 2025, 20:10

   I am a a little new here, but wow, great info to read, much appreciated.
   1. 

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      17th March 2025, 22:08

      @benihana Many thanks, glad you enjoyed it, and welcome!
8. 

   black (@black)
   17th March 2025, 20:31

   Without getting deep into the details of the radio transcript, there are a few things I noticed about Ferrari and Hamilton this weekend:

   • It wasn’t the ideal season opener, Australia and a rain affected race… I mean it wasn’t as smooth season opener as is Bahrain, where the weather is stable, teams have a lot of data from testing and due to having large run-offs, you don’t see as many yellow flags and SC. This may seem like an excuse but Melbourne has a lot of distruptions over the weekend, which can make it difficult to get the best out of the (new) car (we saw all rookies crash and retire (apart from Antonelli)).
   Also surprisingly to me, Melbourne is not Hamilton’s strongest circuit in general, only 2 wins.. compared to Hungaroring or Silverstone where he’s dialed to 110%.

   • Ferrari changed their aero philosophy kinda over the season, by changing the suspension… which seems bold for the last year of these regs. I don’t remember when it was the last time they had pull-rod, but I guess that change will affect how the car is set up etc, maybe it pays off, maybe Ferrari miscalculated something and they have some unexpected disadvantage (like high tyre deg) and that was the main reason they were off in Melbourne.

   • Ferrari is simply Ferrari.. honestly just by listening to both drivers team radio is part comical part frustrating. It will definately take some time for Hamilton and his engineer to find some synergy… hell even Leclerc (in his 7th year in the team!) has to deal with the “it must be the water” stuff. But seriously, kudos to Sainz for dealing with them and doing also the strategy from within the car, given he had to deal with Ferrari’s strategy team.

   All in all, ok Hamilton didn’t set the world on fire, but he wasn’t that far off Leclerc, and it wasn’t the best conditions for a smooth first race. I expect to take him some races until he finds some speed, probably once the European season starts.
9. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   18th March 2025, 7:04

   Ricardo Adami not being a native English speaker like Bono definitely was a factor in their radio comms & will probably continue to be for a little while, & K1 is only a Ferrari PU thing, so unsurprisingly its application caused a little struggle in a competitive situation.
10. 

    stefano (@alfa145)
    18th March 2025, 14:03

    can anybody in the knowledge explain gear sync on F1 cars to me? I assume they have it, first of all. What is it for? Do they all have it/is it mandatory? Thanks
11. 

    baasbas
    18th March 2025, 20:28

    I’m still in two minds about this.
    Yes, driving an F1 car in anger around a lap is intense. There are multiple video’s showing in detail all the settings they change, all the time, it’s basically constant. So it seems impossible that Hamilton did not spend every moment awake going through the motions at Ferrari. It wasn’t a last minute call up, they had time to prepare. And I’m sure they go through several races in the sim even, with the exact engineering team. So they should have a pretty good idea already what to expect from each other.
    So it is utterly bizarre to me we have an engineer trying to explain a button to the driver. Not their first sim race together, but their first actual race. It just makes it seem they didn’t train all this, all winter? What? How??

    All the thing they CAN train in the sim, they should have. Sure, after a couple months you’ll still have the occasional communication hurdle… it’s still Ferrari. But the only actual struggle should be that which you can not properly train in the sim. Actual butt in actual seat time. It is to be expected Hamilton will have a blip here and there… at places where sim data does not match real world data. Because you can’t test everything. But you CAN learn everything else though
12. 

    RH
    18th March 2025, 20:40

    I am sorry but Ferrari are unserious. Have a very strong lineup arguably the best on the grid and this is what they delivered.
    1. 

       pcxmac (@pcxmac)
       19th March 2025, 23:56

       yeah it sounds like they might have jacked up their suspension / chassis and will have to raise their floor, which will pretty much destroy their aero. I hope this is just a bad rumor.

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