Lewis Hamilton said he is prepared to tackle any “sensitivities” within Ferrari over their use of team orders during the Miami Grand Prix.
Ferrari swapped the running order of its drivers twice during Sunday’s race. First the team instructed Charles Leclerc to let his team mate by, as Hamilton behind him was on softer tyres and potentially quicker.Hamilton lobbied the team for several laps to make the call. Once they did, he found it difficult to pull away, and soon afterwards Leclerc said his team mate was holding him up. Ferrari duly told their drivers to swap positions again.
Afterwards Hamilton said he was frustrated by how long the team took to make its initial decision, as he had recently changed to the medium tyre compound and felt he could make progress.
“It was a difficult race starting on the hard tyre, there wasn’t a lot of grip I think with the rain [before the start], so the track was a little bit green. I lost a lot of time obviously behind the Haas at the start.
“Then things started to come alive, I was getting excited. I was P8 and I got this fresh tyre and I clearly had a lot more pace than the car ahead. So in that moment, I was like, come on, let’s utilise it, let’s catch up to the McLarens. So I was hyped. And just a lot of time was lost in the scenario that we had.”
Hamilton criticised Ferrari for their “teamwork” on the radio and reminded them he had moved aside for Leclerc at the Chinese Grand Prix. He said he is prepared to address any tensions which may have arisen.
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“Of course, in the heat of the moment, it’s frustrating,” he said. “But we will internally work it out and figure out how we can improve.
“I’m sure there’s some sensitivities. I’m not feeling sensitive. [But] we’re not where we want to be, Charles and I.”
The Miami event was an especially frustrating one for Ferrari as they fell to being the fifth-fastest team behind Williams. Alexander Albon finished ahead of Leclerc and Hamilton, who said their rival’s performance shows Ferrari need to make significant improvements to their car.
“Williams are doing an amazing job,” he said. “They’ve got James [Vowles, team principal] there who’s doing a great job and the whole team is doing fantastic and they’ve got two great drivers there and they’re really quick.
“For us to be battling with them and struggling to beat them just shows that we have a lot of performance to find. We’re lacking performance in the car but I think we know where we are losing it, particularly since China, for example.
“We’ve got some improvements to make to the car before we can unlock that performance, but we won’t give up, we’ll keep pushing.”
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2025 Miami Grand Prix
- Nothing for Ferrari to learn from Miami team orders episode – Vasseur
- Hamilton proud of Ferrari as ‘we’re taking a beating from media and people’s comments’
- McLaren legality never in doubt says Piastri as FIA’s post-race check clears car
- Albon did not disobey team orders in Miami says Vowles after Sainz’s complaint
- McLaren score their most emphatic win since Hamilton’s 2008 Silverstone triumph
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
5th May 2025, 1:54
The Ferrari team managed to upset both drivers and gain nothing for it. The team made both swap calls too late. They had the drivers on different strategies but somehow failed to strategize the strategies to the end. Just a clown show.
mystic one (@mysticus)
5th May 2025, 2:24
3 laps too late to let ham through in clean air, instead made him race his own team mate… then when he was within reach (2-2.1 sec) they asked him to let lec ? what? seriously mad call, lost 1 sec instantly, then took 4 laps to cover that 1 sec, they almost cost ham his position in the process by demoralizing him at the beginning, and in the end…
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
5th May 2025, 3:48
They should have been more decisive to capitalize on the tire performance for both drivers. Maybe they should grab a tea break and discuss things?
BasCB (@bascb)
5th May 2025, 5:09
Yeah, once again Ferrari showed they aren’t up to quick decisions about this. Loved the radio talk about it through
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
5th May 2025, 5:29
pretty much. Ferrari culture needs to become more competitive internally. And the strategy – pit wall guys need to start showing up during the week to practice high stakes / intense simulations or games which test their ability to assess + understand + form situational awareness + utilize tools + decision make + optimize + +++.
high stakes time for ferrari, stop sitting on the wall guys. The drivers have better situational awareness and initiative than the people with all the screens. And thats pretty crazy if you look at all the money that is dumped in to F1 in the name of competition. Seriously, they should have F1, active sims, telemetry feeds being used to generate|derive important information in real time, and decisions should be able to be made in less than 5 seconds. Otherwise I would invest in some ‘video gamers’ who can do a better job reacting to situations.
Jere (@jerejj)
5th May 2025, 7:15
@jimfromus Indeed. Had the first swap been done on the lap they overtook Sainz, Hamilton would’ve been able to maximize his medium grip & therefore he might’ve been able to catch Antonelli.
JackL
5th May 2025, 15:40
It was such a weird call. They shouldve let Hamilton through right away, used him to give Leclerc a tow, which wouldve protected him from Sainz behind and dragged them both towards Antonelli. With the pace they had in clear air towards the end, they couldve taken Kimi.
Fred was right that they reacted quickly to it. If you look over the team radio, it was about 1 minute and a half, but it was too late. They started looking into it when Hamilton caught Leclerc, rather they should have been looking into it when he was catching Leclerc and the fastest driver out there. In clear air his pace was just behind the Mclarens.
The only plus is that this was Hamilton’s most competitive outing with Ferrari. One tenth off Leclerc in sprint quali, and finished on the podium. 1 tenth off race quali and finished just behind with comparable pace throughout. He did look more comfortable throughout than he has been.
Esteban
6th May 2025, 6:24
It must be the strategy.
Dave
6th May 2025, 23:55
I would think Hamilton knew Ferrari were not the best strategists and made blunders more than most teams. In hindsight I think he knew last year that George was getting the better of him more often than not and Ferrari wanted him and all drivers want to drive in the red car at some time so he went for it.
I think he went with the idea he would change the culture but it is unlikely if not impossible that will happen. Mercedes yes, Ferrari no way. For instance, he told the media Ferrari wasn’t diverse enough and they had work to do soon after signing. He may be correct but that didn’t exactly endear him to Ferrari or the Tifosi.
Ditto for calling them out for bad strategies etc. Even if he were handily beating LeClerc and winning races, criticizing the team for the world to hear is not acceptable. I remember LeClerc being pulled aside by Binotti because the former complained about a bad decision after a race.
As hard as it is for Ferrari to change their ways, the same holds true for Hamilton when it comes to keeping his tongue still when frustrated. It will be interesting to see if the ship can be righted or will continue to sink. To me it was a bad decision for both parties. It was all about money as usual.
Edvaldo
5th May 2025, 3:40
The engineer always say they’re checking.
What’s there to check?
It’s like they’re stalling and expecting the driver to forget about it and of course they dont and the order always takes longer than needed.
stefano (@alfa145)
5th May 2025, 17:29
We are checking…
Esteban
6th May 2025, 6:26
[Checking…] Username checks out.
Wer
6th May 2025, 9:20
Ha! Exactly!
It’s as if they are not prepared to make any decisions because they have never thought about anything, and when they are confronted with a situation, they have to involve 20 different people to have long-winded discussions.
I loved how Hamilton was pushing those fools on the radio to make up their minds.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
5th May 2025, 5:51
Good to see he’s still optimistic.
Ayokanmi Ogunwumiju
6th May 2025, 21:10
Zing !
There was a chance though. Kimi was within striking distance.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
5th May 2025, 7:17
Don’t understand the big frustration. It’s just a modern 2-rooster internal battle: getting ahead via team orders. None of them was fast enough to even catch Antonelli in time, pass him is out of the question. They did not lose anything. HAM should back off this time, he was behind all weekend long and 2-3 laps behind LEC for sure didn’t destroy his tyres that much. He simply wasn’t fast enough.
oweng (@oweng)
5th May 2025, 7:47
I said at the time that they’ll do the swap but take too long deciding so destroying any advantage Hamilton may have had and letting Antonelli get too far away.
And then when it was clear the hard tyre was the better one they took too long swapping back again.
What’s baffling is how are these scenarios not being discussed pre race? Especially when you’re splitting the strategies at the start.
OOliver
5th May 2025, 9:05
They managed to destroy the tyres of both drivers.
Leclerc’s tyres were not yet ready but they had the better prospects later on in the race.
Hamilton’s tyres were ready but were going to fade much later in the race.
They missed the opportunity to have an encounter with Antonelli.
Ferdi
5th May 2025, 9:14
For someone new to a team there is a lot of negativity in his communication towards the team. We’ve seen it at Mercedes as things didn’t go his way (similar to Max being very vocal to his team) but that is when you have had highs together as well together. This behaviour towards Ferrari seems odd. He knew where he was going when switching teams. I am sure he doesn’t think this is the way to change the flaws of the team. I do not think Lewis is going to achieve anything with and at that team if this is his approach. Ferrari needs a driver like Lauda, Schumacher to get on track again.
Patrick (@paeschli)
5th May 2025, 20:01
Lewis supposedly had so much pace he could have challenged Antonelli, but somehow did not dare to overtake his teammate with much better tyres. The. He gets let through and can’t pull away.
The team is stupid but Hamilton didn’t impress me either: too slow to try a regular overtake on his teammate, then kept pushing to swap positions even as his tyre advantage was fading (instead of accepting the team’s decision and save his tyres for the end of the race)…
CarWars (@maxv)
6th May 2025, 9:27
We have gotten used to the 2014-2021 era where the delta’s between cars were big, overtaking was easier. The delta’s are super small now, you gain 0.2-0.3sec per lap on a Merc in a Ferrari chasing. “Impressive driving” is now in those 0.2-0.3sec deltas. By comparison the Merc in 2014 could cut into gaps with 1.5-2sec, it didnt need impressive driving. Only McLaren seems to have extra to spare (>0.5s).
So getting these strategy decisions right and not loosing 1-2sec on switching the cars around is a luxury nobody can afford. That’s again 8-10 laps to recover that delta. Hamilton should have been waved through, gotten the pair on top of Antonelli, overtaken and then Leclerc would have had a chance as well.
Iosif (@afonic)
5th May 2025, 9:25
Ferrari has lost wins due to bad strategy and again they seemed to not be ready for this situation. It was crystal clear, the drivers had the same pace and the one behind has better rubber. Just let him past immediately and if he can’t capitalize on the better tyres swap them back.
What they did was let Lewis waste the best laps of the mediums behind Charles, then let him through when the drop off 4 or 5 laps later ensured that the small pace difference was now reverse. So all they did was protect Antonelli.
But then again, from fighting for wins to fighting for P6… Something went seriously wrong.
BasCB (@bascb)
5th May 2025, 10:22
Just about anytime they had to swap to maximize things in the last 2 years they took ages to decide and blew it that way, yeah. I guess the last time it went decently was in China where it was Hamilton who instigated the move, making it easy to decide.
it really shows, because in 2023 they started actually listening to some of the strategy tips / ideas from Sainz and that worked, for a few races afterwards the whole team seemed to have learnt something, but as soon as they knew Sainz was out, they were back to their usual undecided mess with strategy.
CarWars (@maxv)
6th May 2025, 9:30
Whats worse is they first let Hamilton overheat his mediums, which would take a few laps to cool down and then got Leclerc to overheat his hards, as Hamilton couldnot pull away that easily on overheated and now no longer fresh mediums.. Plus they lost 2 sec playing switch the cars around twice.
MichaelN
5th May 2025, 10:29
It might be worth swapping the AF Corse crew in for a few weeks and see how they go. Although perhaps wait until after Le Mans so they don’t squander that, too.
I’m not seeing the Vasseur magic. It’s been three years. Fighting with Williams for the lower points? Come on.
Patrick (@anunaki)
5th May 2025, 10:59
Maybe they can have a tea party while they’re at it
Great comment
Osnola
5th May 2025, 11:44
Is showing blatant disrespect for your team not a penalty yet?
Wait for it…
N
5th May 2025, 12:26
“GP2 engine, GP2”
CarWars (@maxv)
6th May 2025, 9:31
Ferrari has historically been very sensitive to team criticism. So better watch out as Hamilton, Italian politics are already a problem at Ferrari, don’t lean into it..
Lewisham Milton
5th May 2025, 12:47
Good to see he’s still optimistic.
drmouse (@drmouse)
5th May 2025, 13:53
I loved “do you want me to let him past, too?” 😂
Jere (@jerejj)
5th May 2025, 14:38
I certainly found both his sarcastic response remarks funny, i.e., the tea break suggestion as well as the question about also letting Sainz pass.
David BR (@david-br)
5th May 2025, 15:37
Hamilton was probably right to feel frustrated but I did wonder when he let Leclerc pass at the Chinese GP whether Leclerc and the team would actually record the fact and be ready to do the same when Hamilton had a pace advantage. Apparently not. It just seemed an admission on Hamilton’s part that he was (is) slower. Ferrari could have handled it better but they’re clearly not anywhere near the level of Mercedes or Red Bull in terms of rapid team decision making.
The vibes with the team just now aren’t good from either driver. Hamilton’s sarcasm was a bit too sharp for heat of the moment banter. Not blaming him but he sounds kind of vexed in general and not very happy there.
Patrick (@paeschli)
5th May 2025, 20:04
Leclerc complies with team orders no questions asked. He does not try to ‘keep score’ on who has earned a switcheroo from the other driver. Hamilton should do the same.
FlyingLap (@flyinglapp)
5th May 2025, 16:06
Unfortunately for Hamilton he joined Ferrari when they are making slow cars and slow decisions. Elkann brought him in to win races but they aren’t giving him the tools or the strategies to match his talents.
Deep Sky
6th May 2025, 0:40
Seems to be the case since the Vettel days and maybe even Alonso days? Maybe someone can help here.
It’s like the strategy team is its own privileged group and not needed to bow to orders from anyone nor change tactics due to their bad performance. I’m sure even Fred could see what was the right call but it’s as if his hands are tied with them. If that’s the Ferrari way, no wonder they’re slipping in standings.
Flying Lap
6th May 2025, 4:47
Prost too.
PJ
5th May 2025, 18:05
I applied for a role on the Ferrari pit wall attached my CV, after a week a chased them and I got the following response… “We are still checking…” :-)
Seriously they could have typed a response in ChatGPT and get the following answer in under 20 seconds. LOL
Recommended Action
🔁 Team Order Swap — But Conditional
Assess Lap Times and Pace Delta:
If Car A is clearly faster, consider asking Car B to let Car A through with a time-based condition.
Implement a “Give Back” Clause:
Tell Car B: “Let Car A through. If Car A does not pull X seconds ahead in Y laps, we’ll swap you back.”
This keeps it fair and avoids favoritism.
Deep Sky
6th May 2025, 0:44
Exactly, even Chat GPT gets it
. It doesn’t take a genius to see the best strategy. Yet these guys are insulated and casual as if in a cushy guaranteed govt job.
CarWars (@maxv)
6th May 2025, 9:34
should add to it the tire delta, Chat GPT will be telling them that their stupid to ask the question, wave by already..