May 26 (GMM) Frederic Vasseur has once again played down the latest controversy at Ferrari – this time the growing tension between Lewis Hamilton and his engineer.
While the team surprised itself with Charles Leclerc’s impressive pace, seven time world champion Hamilton was dozens of seconds behind. When asked if he knows why the gap was so big, the 40-year-old answered simply.
“Nope,” Hamilton said. “It happens.”
What was clear, however, was that the communication problems between Hamilton and his race engineer Riccardo Adami only continued to worsen on Sunday.
Hamilton admits he was in “no man’s land” in the race, so he asked Adami on the radio: “What do you need from me?”
Among the complex answer was Adami’s assertion: “This is our race.”
The former Mercedes driver told the media afterwards: “The information wasn’t exactly that clear.
“I didn’t fully understand ‘this is our race’. Was I fighting for the next spot ahead? In actual fact when I looked at the data I was nowhere near any of the guys up front. I used up my tyres a lot in that moment but I was so far away from them anyway.”
After qualifying, Hamilton was penalised after being told by Adami that Max Verstappen behind him was “slowing down” – leading to the Red Bull driver being clearly impeded on a hot lap.
And after crossing the chequered flag on Sunday, Hamilton thanked his crew for repairing his car with impressive speed prior to qualifying, but received no reply from Adami.
“Are you upset with me or something?” Hamilton asked on the radio.
As is his usual approach, team boss Vasseur denied anything is wrong. “Honestly, it’s not a tension that a guy is asking something. He’s between the walls, he’s under pressure, he’s fighting.
“When I spoke to him after the race he was not upset.”
Former F1 test driver Ho-Pin Tung, however, thinks the time has come for Ferrari to consider giving Hamilton a new engineer. “He worked with Peter Bonnington for a long time, because the engineer is the most important person in the team for the driver,” he told Viaplay.
“That relationship has to be very good. If not, it simply costs performance.”
Another Viaplay analyst, GT3 driver Indy Dontje, went a step further: “Things weren’t going well between Adami and Carlos Sainz either. I think he should go.
“He now has a seven time world champion in the car, and he expects something from you. Adami just doesn’t perform. Hamilton can expect to have the best of the best.
“Vasseur replaced Charles Leclerc’s engineer at Ferrari,” Dontje added. “I don’t understand why they don’t intervene now. Hamilton should be able to demand that.”
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