Some F1 drivers are “almost abusive” on their radios · RaceFans

Lewis Hamilton denied he was unhappy about his communication with new race engineer Riccardo Adami during the Australian Grand Prix, despite the appearance given by excerpts played during the race.

He and Adami worked together for the first time during a grand prix last weekend following Hamilton’s move to Ferrari.

The excerpts of their radio messages played on the world television feed during the race focused on Adami urging Hamilton to use the K1 engine mode, which the driver was reluctant to do. But those messages were a small fraction of the total communications between the pair, little of which was played on the world feed.

Hamilton appeared bemused by the focus on his radio messages after last weekend’s race. “I don’t know why everyone’s been so negative about it,” he told the official F1 channel.

“I was polite. I always said ‘please’ at the end, even when I was racing! And when you look at some of the other drivers who have been super-vocal, almost abusive with their engineers, who have taken batterings for years. Mine didn’t even take a battering.

“There were a couple of individuals that were quite rude on how we spoke. But anyway, it’s just something you learn along the way. So from race to race, we’re going to get stronger together and that’s the most important part.”

Hamilton and Peter Bonnington had the longest-running partnership between a driver and race engineer until the seven-times champion left Mercedes at the end of last season. He said it took time to perfect their communication in the early days.

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“The relationship between Bono and I took years, it took so much time for us to learn each other because he had worked with previous drivers and they require quite a different amount of information,” said Hamilton. “So you just, bit by bit, trial and error, you try different things along the way and eventually you gel.

“Riccardo and I get on super-well and that was our first race together. That was the first time he was having to throw those balls into the cockpit, and we dealt with 90-plus percent of those totally fine.

“Afterwards we just talked and we said ‘hey, this is the bit that I did need and this is the bit that I didn’t need.’ And it’s no problem. Next time we’ll do it differently.”

“Every driver requires different information,” Hamilton added. George [Russell], for example, likes a lot of information, or he used to when I was racing with him. For me, I don’t need or like a lot of information. It can sometimes be overbearing and overloading.”

This article will be updated