‘Have I been dead slow the whole race?’ Full radio from Hamilton’s frustrating Monaco GP

55 comments on “‘Have I been dead slow the whole race?’ Full radio from Hamilton’s frustrating Monaco GP”

1. 

   bull mello (@bullmello)
   26th May 2025, 17:11

   Wondering, is there a better race engineer Riccardo Adami at Ferrari available?
   1. 

      MikeD (@nanotech)
      26th May 2025, 17:16

      We are checking…
      1. 

         sam
         26th May 2025, 17:17

         Brilliant!
      2. 

         Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
         26th May 2025, 17:23

         Genuinely laughed out loud. Well played
      3. 

         Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
         26th May 2025, 17:39

         +1 :)
      4. 

         BasCB (@bascb)
         26th May 2025, 19:37

         :-) +2
      5. 

         Inkalen (@inkalen)
         26th May 2025, 22:58

         LOL
         +3
      6. 

         Maciej
         27th May 2025, 8:12

         bravo!
      7. 

         bull mello (@bullmello)
         27th May 2025, 22:08

         Bingo!
   2. 

      JackL
      27th May 2025, 15:37

      Im not sure that swapping engineers will do much. This race is a bit of an outlier. I cant remember the radio from previous races ever being this bad. In Imola, it seemed that Adami and Hamilton were gelling reasonably well, and Hamilton had the information that he needed. So they’ll look over it and make adjustments from here. Adami is a talented engineer who knows his stuff, he’s no slouch to rise up the ranks at Ferrari like he did. Maybe in the end, they’ll switch engineers, but this race should be taken for what it is, just one race at the start of a relationship.
      1. 

         pcxmac (@pcxmac)
         28th May 2025, 0:09

         not really.

         As someone who has experience in military exercises involving more than 8v8, garbage ground radar, facilitating flight follow on the whole of the south korean peninsula for military aircraft, including DMZ stuff, I would say that the guys on the pit walls for most F1 teams are not that great.

         F1 could do a lot better when it comes to comms, a lot better. Especially in the rhelm of trend analysis, and providing useful and critical point outs to, so that the drivers can better control the tempo of their own game.

         If you listen to a stuff hot weapons director, (GCI/AWACS) and then listen to F1 engineers, you might get the impression that F1 is kind of bottom of the barrel when it comes to providing situational awareness.
2. 

   Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
   26th May 2025, 17:24

   Imagine the difference if Rob Smedley was still there. Need a rapport
3. 

   ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
   26th May 2025, 17:36

   No Bono = Non Buono :)
4. 

   Jimbo
   26th May 2025, 17:51

   It seems Hamilton is a bit unrealistic or impatient at best. He and Bono were together 10 years and it took time for them to gel at his own admission. Adami doesn’t seem to get on with Hamilton so something has to give. They will probably fire or move Adami and bring in someone else but who’s to say it will get any better? Maybe Lewis thought he could change the culture at Ferrari but that’s most likely going to be the case.
   1. 

      Applebook
      26th May 2025, 17:57

      Being fundamentally slow doesn’t help matters. As little as I think of Hamilton’s pure pace now, even I thought that he would be better on race days than he has been. When did Russell ever go 40 seconds faster than Hamilton in any race on just pure pace? Maybe Leclerc is better in racing trim than we have him credit for, or maybe Hamilton is even slower than he was last year. The race engineer cannot give you pure speed that you no longer have.
      1. 

         mystic one (@mysticus)
         27th May 2025, 7:02

         Being fundamentally slow doesn’t help matters. As little as I think of Hamilton’s pure pace now, even I thought that he would be better on race days than he has been.

         This from during qualification.
         Hamilton: “OK, just keep up today with the gaps, mate.”
         Adami: “Right. All right.”

         Then the no so clever slowing down comment about max and 3place grid drop.

         Fundamentally brain dead helps matter worse, esp if someone asked to watch out one thing specifically, he fails at that and costs hard earned grid places!

         The race engineer cannot give you pure speed that you no longer have.

         But he can apparently give you grid penalties without issues. What is your take on that marty mcfly?
         1. 

            Esploratore (@esploratore1)
            27th May 2025, 23:02

            Good point, I was wondering why hamilton was 7th on the grid “wasn’t he on the 2nd row??”.
      2. 

         Drg
         29th May 2025, 13:59

         Seriously?

         You really have a pretty weird despicable take on stuff.

         Where do you get off?
   2. 

      Postreader
      26th May 2025, 18:17

      He didn’t get on with Vettel either. Not to mention Sainz notoriously doing his own thing.
   3. 

      MichaelN
      26th May 2025, 19:09

      Adami has been being told off by his drivers for nearly a decade. It’s not a Hamilton issue.

      Remember when Vettel was telling his engineer the exact steps he needed to take, or when he was renegotiating race strategy all while driving the car? That was Adami. Or when Sainz exasperatedly said “stop inventing!”. That was Adami as well. Whatever his exact talents are, this guy is not in the right place.

      When Vettel was leaving Ferrari, on a not so happy note, he said: “If the brand [Ferrari] is unique it’s because there are people like that [Adami] in Maranello.”
      1. 

         Jojo
         27th May 2025, 0:02

         The whole quote from Vettel was not negative at all, he said
         “We’ve known each other forever and he’s a friend. He’s one of those who represents the values of Ferrari, if the brand is unique it’s because there are people like that in Maranello.”

         He definitely meant that as a positive.
      2. 

         Jogo
         27th May 2025, 21:57

         The race engineer acts simply as an intermediary connecting the pilot with a collective of strategists, meteorologists, experts in racing regulations, futurists, and other prognosticators who are, in essence, running the entire operation. They convey information to the pilot via the race engineer. Should the race engineer “make” erroneous decisions, it represents a systemic failure on the part of those delivering these directives from above. In my view, the sole independent action a race engineer can undertake is the skill of motivating or soothing.
5. 

   FlyingLap (@flyinglapp)
   26th May 2025, 18:00

   Hamilton must have John Elkann in his mobile contacts. Elkann hired Lewis to help Ferrari win, it’s time Lewis pulls rank and gets Adami reassigned.
6. 

   Edvaldo
   26th May 2025, 18:01

   Hamilton got stuck for dozens of laps in a train of backmarkers. Coming from 7th, realistically, 5th was the best possible result, still his race was very poorly executed, it’s Monaco, tyres don’t matter, and still it looked like he spent the whole race saving tyres for no reason.

   I never really paid attention to Adami in the past, but it seems there’s quite a long history of bad communication with him since his Vettel days.
   1. 

      BasCB (@bascb)
      26th May 2025, 19:39

      And he got stuck in that train twice! Yeah, I don’t think there was that much wrong with his pace, he might have been able to catch up and have a chance to get ahead of Verstappen without that.
   2. 

      Air
      26th May 2025, 22:28

      Managing tires? He was complaining about tire deg, he did not have the pace. It had nothing to do with backmarker traffic as all the other drivers ahead of him went through it as well.
      1. 

         Edvaldo
         27th May 2025, 0:59

         Adami It’s a P5. Lost a lot of time in traffic, then the rest we need to investigate. And pick up please. Charge button on.

         There you have it. And i’m saying it because i saw in the GPS as well. Hamilton’s red dot amidst a line of cars for laps on end while the top 4 were on their own somewhere else.
         And through their messages you can see them talking about bringing the tyres slowly as well, they were not in a hurry.
   3. 

      Ajaxn
      27th May 2025, 1:21

      When Hamilton pitted on to mediums with 22 laps to go, that was the time to push. Adami could have made it clear Verstappen has to pit again and that Hamilton has a chance of 4th, if he can close the gap over the next 20 laps by 10 seconds.

      Nothing like this was conveyed to Hamilton. Being told to push, without the reasons why, did not help Hamilton to see the bigger picture. Something like ‘Verstappen is slowing the group ahead, we have a chance to close that gap so Verstappen pits behind us”, would have helped.’

      Adami expects to be obeyed, with no questions asked. Whilst Hamilton needs to know the reasoning why.
      1. 

         F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
         27th May 2025, 8:35

         Hamilton’s pace in his final stint was really poor. Maybe this was due to traffic, but even so he was generally slower than Verstappen on very old tires. He just seemed to have given up. His engineer could have helped him to stay motivated, but it’s primarily the driver’s task to go as fast as possible, even if it likely wouldn’t have changed the result.
         1. 

            Carl Parker (@mysticarl)
            27th May 2025, 11:56

            Hamilton was told there was no threat from behind, so why would he push? He wasn’t told to push. He was given times to do which he did. That safety aspect governs how much to try and push past traffic etc. you don’t take more risk than necessary.
         2. 

            Aluc Thompson
            27th May 2025, 19:21

            I was watching Hamiltons times during that last stint and couldn’t believe at how slow he was going – despite clear track ahead. He came out 38 seconds behind Verstappen, and within around 12 laps had fallen to 50 seconds behind – despite the fact he was on far fresher tyres and Max was deliberately driving slowly to back up Norris. He had a genuine shot at fourth or at least forcing Max to drive / pit faster!
            1. 

               Ajaxn
               29th May 2025, 18:47

               Exactly, I don’t think Hamilton knew hw could have had 4th if Verstappen pitted behind him. Ok no one knew Verstappen stay out as long as he did, but all the same it should have been out there as a potential.
7. 

   Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
   26th May 2025, 18:04

   Monaco is a unique track, and we know Leclerc is a bit of a specialist there, but even so it’s a bit concerning how far off Lewis was in race pace. And that’s despite Leclerc being held up for the final part of the race behind Verstappen, while Hamilton ran his final two stints in clear air, apart from lapping traffic.

   As others have said, I also don’t understand Adami’s responses. He usually seems to ignore the question and just give out whatever information he feels like, until the point where he stopped responding entirely. Not a good look, and surely Lewis will be looking to make some major changes here in the near future.
   1. 

      Ajaxn
      27th May 2025, 1:26

      Apparently, the reason is a protocol at Ferrari which says the race engineer only gives information when the driver is on the straights. I suspect this is a new protocol, which wasn’t suited to Monaco or Adami, operating to the letter of this protocol.
      1. 

         pcxmac (@pcxmac)
         27th May 2025, 15:31

         particularly, they are not supposed to talk to the driver in to casino, and through the tunnel.

         The problem with that is Lewis wasn’t racing and the flag had been taken.

         So yeah, all Ferrari have are excuses which means they need to reassign Adami, sure he’s a great guy, but its clear he’s not on Lewis’ team, at all.

         Great to see Ferrari lose that race btw. They plumb let Lewis go after the middle of the race and focused on Charles. Adami was literally sleeping at the end. Absolute garbage teamwork.

         Leadership at Ferrari has serious issues. It needs like energy. The whole team is hinged on FOMO / HOPIUM at the moment while their pit crews and designers are doing a decent job. Operations needs to be completely scrubbed and examined.
8. 

   Henry
   26th May 2025, 18:19

   Adami has been around a long time and worked with Vettel twice including his years at Ferrari.
   Regardless, these two do not like each other and a change is needed pronto before it implodes.
   I think it’s mostly on Hamilton – he knew Ferrari’s reputation of being unorganized. Did he really think that would change overnight.
   Complaining to engineer’s on a constant basis is not a good idea – at Mercedes maybe but not at Ferrari.
   Maybe he will get another engineer but as the saying goes, “be careful, you may get what you wish for.”
   1. 

      MichaelN
      26th May 2025, 19:13

      I think it’s mostly on Hamilton – he knew Ferrari’s reputation of being unorganized.

      That sounds like the problem is with Ferrari, not Hamilton.

      Yes, Hamilton can be a bit dramatic over the radio. But he’s still the point man. Vasseur needs to give him a race engineer who gels well with him, not shop around for a driver who gets on well with Adami as is. Because how many titles has he won? Zero?
      1. 

         BasCB (@bascb)
         26th May 2025, 19:40

         Adami did not seem to be that good for Sainz, who had to invent his own strategy for the team more often than not (if he wanted it to work) and we’ve heard Vettel not being too impressed with him at times as well.
         1. 

            US_Peter (@us_peter)
            26th May 2025, 20:57

            Honestly it sounds like not having any rapport with his drivers is a secondary issue that may be disguising the fact that Adami is actually pretty mediocre at this job at best. If Vasseur wants to get his money’s worth out of Hamilton he needs to move Adami elsewhere pretty quickly.

            If there’s no engineer inside Ferrari up to the task of supporting Hamilton the way he needs to be supported to feel confident then they need to recruit from outside, otherwise they’re just flushing Hamilton’s rather sizable salary down the toilet and selling themselves short.
            1. 

               BasCB (@bascb)
               26th May 2025, 21:18

               Yeah, I agree Peter. It really makes no sense to make a big hire like Hamilton and then fail to support him to do as well as he can.
         2. 

            Rabidest
            26th May 2025, 22:55

            So many here don’t understand the difference between race engineers and team strategists. The engineers don’t decide the driver’s strategy.
   2. 

      Bob Sanderson
      26th May 2025, 21:56

      I wish he had taken Bono with him if that was even possible.
9. 

   Alex
   26th May 2025, 20:16

   Comunication is not Adami and Hamilton’s strength. I think Lewis is also to blame here as he often gives bad feedback on what he is feeling from car behavior. Saying which tyre is gone or what is the limitation (front, rear) instead of “tyre’s gone” would improve the quality of the info exchanged.
   1. 

      osnola
      26th May 2025, 20:38

      Both seem to lack respect for each other. The start of a correct communication is answering calls. Both lack in that regard but Adami is sitting on a chair and Lewis is driving on the shortest circuit and needs info and it just does not got answered.
      Bad situation for both.
      But even Bono had his moments with lewis. Lewis is not the most mentally stable person and when things get hot he is looking for answers to support him.
      He really seems to need that so its the task of the engineer to offer that support.
   2. 

      cdavman (@cdavman)
      26th May 2025, 21:16

      I assume you’re basing this on previous experience rather than what was actually written in the article?

      So reading through this exchange it would seem Hamilton was giving the detail you claim he was not:

      “Small tear in the right-rear”
      “Yeah, my left-rear’s not good, mate”

      So looks to me like he was saying which tyre was gone…
10. 

    Jim from US (@jimfromus)
    26th May 2025, 21:06

    I don’t see how the engineer telling HAM that VER was on a slow lap is in any way HAM’s fault. The engineer is obviously related to someone high up at Ferrari since he has not done a great job with 3 drivers and still has a job.
11. 

    PlosslF1 (@f1-ploss)
    26th May 2025, 22:56

    It was obvious something was off when Lewis asked one thing and he replied to something different, If Ferrari are serious about be winners there is no room for dead wood….
12. 

    Kurik
    26th May 2025, 23:21

    What I don’t understand is don’t they talk about what info is required and when and review previous races transcript and decide what to do and what not to do so there is improvement each race? It’s not hard to say “while I am not in a corner let me know who is ahead, behind and deltas. Let me know who to push and why. Let me know of I need to conserve and for how long.l/etc”. Then ask engineer “what do you need from me and when?”. Lets go through some a walk through. Is this that hard?
    1. 

       Ferdi
       27th May 2025, 7:09

       I don’t understand that either. Things happen, but then you make sure they don’t happen in the future by sitting down and scripting the ideal communication for different situations. Something is definitely off at Ferrari if they can’t even do that. I am afraid it will require a serious level abruption to get this team back to its winning days. The culture inside the team must not just be changed, but completely replaced. I can’t believe they wasted yet another year.
13. 

    gDog (@gdog)
    27th May 2025, 8:42

    Eventually fighting Verstappen, target lap time 14.7 if you can.

    Next lap 1:14.698
    1. 

       AlexS
       27th May 2025, 21:41

       Nice.
14. 

    verstappen (@verstappen)
    27th May 2025, 11:49

    Dead slow? Or that slow?
15. 

    Jim from US (@jimfromus)
    27th May 2025, 12:42

    HAM asked for data on everyone and then complains when getting data on VER. VER is part of everyone. HAM should only be given info on the driver ahead and the driver behind until he can show that he can handle driving the car. And I have no idea how he didn’t expect to lose time when he chose to bring the tires in nice and slow. No other drivers were caring for their tires because it was a slow speed race. Yet the tire whisperer is bringing in tires nice and slow. For what purpose?
16. 

    David BR (@david-br)
    27th May 2025, 15:16

    Clearly Adami and Hamilton aren’t going to gell and the driver-engineer rapport is a critical factor in driver and team success. So Ferrari need to transfer Adami and see who steps forward as a replacement – someone who actually wants the job would be ideal. Hamilton has been there enough months for both he and whoever is available to know how well they’re likely to get on.
    Or is this just not how Ferrari do things? I disagree with those saying Ferrari should have stuck with the Leclerc-Sainz combination, I also disagree that Hamilton is notably slower (more cautious perhaps). Next year under new regulations and aero performance, potentially more suited to his driving, will be the real test. But Ferrari signed him – presumably – in large part to inspire change towards winning something at Ferrari, finally, after nearly two decades, so they really need to listen more to him. Same problem that persuaded him to leave Mercedes (the technical engineers not listening to driver input on the failed car design). That begins with his race engineer.
17. 

    Margus P
    27th May 2025, 17:47

    Seems like Ferrari is achieving nothing big near soon. They just do not have a right people.

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