‘We need a better way to communicate’ - how Hamilton radio issues added to Ferrari struggle

“I’m still learning this new car that’s quite a lot different from what I’ve driven my whole career,” he noted. “In the sense of the Mercedes power coming to the Ferrari power, it’s something quite new – different vibration, different feel, different way of working.

“The whole team works completely differently. I was just sitting looking at last year’s race traces, and it’s upside down compared to the previous ones, what I’ve been used to. I don’t understand it all.”

Carlos Sainz, who has made the opposite power unit swap, agreed that he faced a similar problem.

After qualifying eighth on Saturday – right behind team-mate Charles Leclerc – Hamilton made it clear that he has much to learn about how to get the best out of the SF-25.

“We’ve been just improving every single lap, session-on-session,” he said. “Big learning curve this weekend, the car was so much different from the moment I left the pitlane, just feeling so much different than I’ve ever experienced here.

“And it’s been a lot slower process for me to really build confidence in the car. And if you look at the high-speed everywhere, I’ve been down all weekend to Charles, who just had it from the get-go, from just the minute he went out, he knew what the car does.

“And for me, I was just building up to that through the weekend, and I think I got a lot closer towards it in the end. And to be that close to Charles in my first qualifying session in the same car against a great qualifier, I’m pretty happy with that.”

Stark differences to Mercedes

Expanding on the areas where he was struggling he added: “From braking, just through corner balance is a lot different to what I had. Mechanical balance shift that you have is much, much different to what I had in the previous car.

“And the high-speed balance, the low-speed balance, is quite a shift. So she behaves a little bit different.”

Hamilton can’t judge how long it might take him to feel comfortable in the car.

“I really don’t know. Honestly, I thought I was further along than I was, and then I got here and [practice 1], I was like, ‘Jesus, I’ve still got a way to go!’ There’s still a ton of tools that keep popping out, like ‘hey, what about this? I’ve never tried that. What does it do?’

“And it’s one thing saying it, but actually going out and feeling it… That’s what I’m just learning really, bit by bit. I think we did some good work when trying to move the car forward.

“When you have a problem in the car and you come in normally, when you’ve got the experience, you can say, okay, that’s this is where I want to go with it.

“But I don’t know which tool to use at the moment, so I’m heavily relying, for the first time, on my engineers, and they’ve done a great job. In the past, I would say, ‘Bono, this is what I want, that setting, this setting’, and I can’t do that at the moment.”

Rain added to the pressure

In that context the last thing Hamilton needed was a wet race adding to the challenge he faced on Sunday, despite his acknowledged mastery of such conditions.

“I’ve never driven the car in the wet – I don’t even know where the wet switch is really,” he said after qualifying. “I don’t know which buttons I’ve got to switch for tomorrow. So that’s going to be new.

“We’re using Brembos [brakes], for example. I don’t think I’ve used them for a long time. So how the Brembos behave in the wet, I don’t know if they’re glazed, what settings I’m going to have to use with this car? It’s all different.

“I’ve got three laps [to the grid] to learn the car in wet and then get out into the race. I’m going actually, for the first time in the wet in an uncomfortable position, because I’ve never driven this car, so it’s going to be a shock to the system when I get out there. I’m going to be learning on the fly and just giving everything.”

Weekend verdict

At the end of a frantic afternoon he reiterated how much he still has to learn.

“It felt like I was in the deep, deep end today,” he said.“Everything is new. First time driving this car in the rain, the car was behaving a lot different to what I’ve experienced in the past, the power unit, all the steering functions, all the things that their throwing to you, you’re trying to juggle all these new things.

“I didn’t have any confidence today unfortunately, so I’m going to make some changes next week to the car, the set-up. Today was just rear stability, particularly on the power, with lots of snaps. I was nearly in the wall most of the time.”

Ferrari’s pitstop error

The rain in the latter stages of the race presented an opportunity for those who got it right – and the biggest winner was Hamilton’s replacement Kimi Antonelli.

Tenth and a couple of places behind Lewis before the rain triggered pitstop mayhem, the Italian came in at just the right time, and was propelled up the order to an eventual fourth.

Lewis briefly led by staying out, but a stop for inters was inevitable, and he fell back down the order.

“They said it’s just a short shower. So I was like, ‘I’m going to hold it out’. And the rest of the track was dry. So I was ‘I’m going to stick it out as long as I can, I can keep it on the track’. And then they didn’t say more was coming.

“And all of a sudden more was coming. So I think I was just lacking that bit of information at the end.”

Tenth place wasn’t much reward, but with so many cars in the wall he could at least take comfort from the fact that he had stayed on track.

“I’m grateful I got through it and came out at the end with something, at least I got one point. Obviously I didn’t go off or spin today. Lacking pace for sure, but I do believe the car has more performance than we were able to show this weekend.

“From the moment I got in the car on Friday, I didn’t have the confidence, particularly in all the high-speed I was I was down a huge amount. And we got to Saturday, confidence was coming back, I was building and building and building.

“And then we got to the race, and again, starting from scratch, and I didn’t have any confidence through pretty much most of the race, but I think in the settings as well, the car was very tricky today.

He added: “I’ve learned a huge amount this weekend. There’s lots to take away from it. I’ve got some changes I’m going tomake for next week, and see how it goes. But today was a crash course in driving a Ferrari in the rain!”

Another weekend to learn from

The story of Ferrari’s Melbourne weekend was not just about Hamilton and Adami, because Leclerc was caught out by the same wrong strategy call, and had his own communication frustrations at times.

“I think this weekend was quite extreme for different reasons,” said Vasseur. “The fact that it’s not a permanent track, the fact that the grip is changing a lot, the fact that we had these conditions today.

“I think it’s one of the most difficult weekends to manage, and for sure, it was not a shock, but it was not the right weekend for us.

“But let me focus on next week. We’ll have to learn a lot from this weekend, because we made mistakes.

“We need to improve the communication, as I said before, and to understand what Lewis is expecting from the communication. Let’s learn from today, and be much better next week.”