“Don’t give me too much now”: Hamilton’s search for speed at Ferrari continues

17 comments on ““Don’t give me too much now”: Hamilton’s search for speed at Ferrari continues”

1. 

   André
   16th April 2025, 13:21

   This radio exchange seems to validate Peter Windsor’s observation about Lewis’s driving style change. He used to be what he calls a natural short-corner driver, much like Max and Leclerc. But in this era of ground effect cars he switched to a more conventional style, perhaps trying to drive the difficult Mercedes, and that’s where the gap to Leclerc seems to be. You could see that clearly in Shanghai. Leclerc was shortening the corners. Here in this exchange you hear Adami repeating early turn in and brake peak and release. Areas where Lewis not only excelled but thrived from. Very strange to see him being coached on what was otherwise his natural skill. Or maybe it was just killer understeer.
   1. 

      Applebook
      16th April 2025, 17:31

      Lewis was never a “short corner” driver. He has a sharp turn in but has always preferred a U shaped pattern with mid corner and exit understeer. “Short” corner drivers are sharp turn in with V shaped apex like Max and Leclerc. Lewis has always been closer to Alonso than Max in driving style.
      1. 

         André
         16th April 2025, 22:22

         Shortening the corner is not the same as V-ing the corner. It’s certainly not what Peter means, because he has already addressed the difference and what he means by short corner.
   2. 

      An Sionnach
      16th April 2025, 18:36

      I like Peter Windsor’s videos but I do wonder about what he calls short and long corner driving styles. He has illustrated this with photos of various drivers going through the same corners (Monaco was one example). His explanation that shorter = faster is not necessarily true, though, and the shortest path can be much slower.

      Perhaps I’ve missed it, but it would be good to take the track position of each driver around their best qualifying laps and plot that on the track with the telemetry data for each driver.

      There may be something to be seen comparing the driving styles, but I don’t think it’s as simple as short or long corners.
      1. 

         André
         16th April 2025, 22:41

         He has talked about that so many times… Short corner doesn’t mean taking a short path closer to the apex, necessarily, nor simply V-ing the corner. It’s about minimising the lateral loads and keeping the car as much as possible on a stable platform. That way you can optimise braking into the corners, squeezing deeper and narrower, spending less time turning and being earlier on traction. A great example of that was the race in Qatar or alternative Bahrain where George replaced Hamilton. Was it 2020? George jumped in the car and was faster than Bottas, and a very telling reason for that I could see in a long right-hander. Bottas was following the arc while George sort of squared it by taking a wider entry and turning later for a shorter duration to get the car pointed towards the next corner. As a consequence he could carry more speed through the corner and demand less of the tyres. Back to Hamilton, he became a tyre whisperer in the glory days at Mercedes in part because of that way of driving. Keeping the car flat as much as possible, spending less time scrubbing speed with unnecessary lateral loads. Watch again Hamilton vs Leclerc in Shanghai and see what Leclerc was doing and what Hamilton wasn’t doing. Very uncharacteristic.
         1. 

            AlexS
            17th April 2025, 0:12

            Well you just described V-ing the corner…
            1. 

               André
               17th April 2025, 12:10

               No, I haven’t. It’s ok if you don’t understand it, but don’t frame what I said to fit your interpretation.
            2. 

               André
               17th April 2025, 12:17

               Let’s put it this way: short corner approach might result in a V in some situations, but it’s not the goal. It’s not about “I’m going to V the corners as much as I can”. The focus is on making sure you have a stable platform as much as possible and minimum time under lateral load, to be able to go faster, so sometimes that allows the driver to take a narrow approach to the corner, which is not the same as a V. There’s skill with footwork to make sure that the car accepts faster cornering without demanding more from the tyres.
   3. 

      Ferdi
      17th April 2025, 14:06

      Why can’t he just adapt or drive around specific characteristics of the car? I mean he has somewhat of a reputation which would make us assume he is a more special driver than average. That would make his nr of titles even more a result of luck and chance since it would not just have been having the best car for 8 straight years in a row, but also one that accidentally also suited his racing style. Talking about luck! That is quite special.
      1. 

         André
         17th April 2025, 20:14

         Easier said than done. Look at Schumacher at Mercedes.
2. 

   someone or something
   16th April 2025, 13:27

   That sounds like a refreshingly productive collaboration. Hamilton’s main complaint in the first couple of races was a lack of driving feedback, and Adami seems to have adjusted his approach. He did get told to be quiet near the end of the race, but I guess that doesn’t have to mean his feedback was excessive, just that Hamilton felt it wouldn’t make any difference to the outcome anymore. He doesn’t need anyone telling him how to drive the car home when he’s in a race of his own.
   Fascinating insight, though. Adami’s flood of information for the Safety Car restart gave me sensory overload, and I don’t even have to press any buttons, much less understand what they do …
3. 

   Ajaxn
   16th April 2025, 15:48

   “Grazie a tutti.” “Thank you all.”

   ;0)
4. 

   Anon A. Mouse
   16th April 2025, 15:52

   The communication between Hamilton and Adami has improved; there’s quite a ways left to go. In general, Adami is giving good information and more or less the information Hamilton needs but not in the optimal way. Occasionally Adami will misspeak when saying a number and sometimes with his accent there’s ambiguity in what he says. I think in qualifying Adami mentioned a time deficit in “First Sector”, but Hamilton mistook that for “Third Sector”. In the race when giving gaps and lap times, things can be even more confusing. On lap 4, Adami uses the full seconds portion of the lap time:

   Understood. Charles lap time 38.5, Piastri lap time, 38.1.

   But on lap 28, he’s shortened to just the ones digit:

   Pace is good. Charles 7.9.

   Then there’s lap 30 with a gap and lap times

   Piastri is P1, 20 seconds ahead of you. Piastri is 7.7, and Charles 7.8 And Norris 8.1, pace is very good.

   When read it’s maybe not so bad. But when listened to it’s a flurry of numbers. Also there’s this one:

   DRS enabled. Car behind 0.8, it’s Gasly.

   If I recall, there was an annoyingly long pause between, “Car behind 0.8” and “it’s Gasly.” What’s more, the continuous coaching that Adami tries to do is much too much for what Hamilton needs. Not captured here is how sometime Adami will repeat something that doesn’t really need to be repeated.

   Overall I think Ferrari has poor communication to their drivers. What would probably serve them well is to standardize communications as much as possible, then allow some flexibility for what a driver does/doesn’t want. For Adami in particular it would be a good idea to watch back hectic races and see how Hamilton and Bono communicated (I think Bono’s communication to drivers is exemplary). In general he wants:
   – Gap ahead
   – Gap behind (when not actively battling or too far away)
   – Lap time of leader
   – Lap time of car ahead (when hunting)
   – Lap time of the closet competition (when not in win contention)
   – Corner(s) he’s slower than the car ahead or race leader

   If Adami can give this information consistently (typically every lap), confidently, and unambiguously (and not in corners) then we’ll almost never have this communication discussion again.
   1. 

      MichaelN
      16th April 2025, 23:06

      Yeah, there’s definitely something to be gained by moving towards what Hamilton is used to and has refined over 10 years working with Bonnington. No need to reinvent the wheel.

      A lot of the things said in these transcript (which are great, by the way) don’t seem to be actionable. Why does Hamilton need to know a lot of these things? What’s it to him that Piastri is 20 seconds ahead? It often reads like a struggling project leader telling everyone on the team everything that’s going on and then sort of hope the people involved sort things out among themselves.
5. 

   BMW P85 V10
   17th April 2025, 10:50

   Hamilton should sit down with his engineer and specify which information he wants, in which format he wants the information, how often he wants the information and any location/ situation sensitive information he wants whenever needed.
   To me it looks a bit silly that your competing in the pinnacle of Motor sports and seem to be un prepared about important information and to communicate about this information.
   I’m a trainer/ coach in a complete different discipline and I sit down with each team (15 year old – adults) to determine how to communicate during the game.
   1. 

      Ferdi
      17th April 2025, 13:56

      I agree. This all sounds unbelievable to me. I would expect him to have done all these steps and more before the first race of the season. All you can prepare in advance should have been prepared in advance. This is all unprofessional to say the least.
   2. 

      Oleg
      17th April 2025, 23:09

      It’s strange that you with your professional skill just now aren’t in the F1 team….

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