Latest news with #RiccardoAdami
The Independent
2 days ago
- Automotive
- The Independent
Lewis Hamilton brands speculation of Ferrari rift as ‘BS'
Lewis Hamilton has dismissed claims he is at odds with Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami, insisting that he is 'amazing to work with'. Hamilton and Adami were involved in a number of fractious radio exchanges during last Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion finished fifth in Monte Carlo, 51 seconds behind winner Lando Norris and 48 seconds adrift of Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc who took second. After he crossed the line, Hamilton asked Adami: 'Are you upset with me or something?' Hamilton did not appear to receive an answer from the Italian. Addressing the post-race message ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton replied: 'It was literally just there were areas where we had radio problems through the race, and I did not get the information that I wanted. We spoke afterwards. 'There is a lot of speculation and most of it is BS. We have a great relationship. He is amazing to work with. He is a great guy. He is working so hard, we both are.' Hamilton won six of his record-equalling seven world titles with Peter 'Bono' Bonnington at his side with Mercedes. However, Bonnington could not be persuaded to join Hamilton at Ferrari. In their first race together, Hamilton pleaded with Adami to 'leave me to it' in the rain in Australia, and then accused his team of having 'a tea break' as they deliberated whether to move Leclerc out of his way at the Miami Grand Prix last month. Adami worked with Sebastian Vettel, first at Toro Rosso, before he followed the four-time world champion to Ferrari. Adami was Carlos Sainz's race engineer before Hamilton replaced the Spaniard at Ferrari. Hamilton continued: 'We don't always get it right every weekend. Do we have disagreements? Yes, like everyone does in relationships. But we work through them. We are both in it together. We both want to win a world championship together and we are both working towards lifting the team up. 'So it is just all noise and we are not paying attention to it. It doesn't make a difference to the job we are trying to do. 'Our relationship is great. And there are no problems. We are constantly learning more and more about each other and adapting the way we want to work. He has worked with lots of different drivers before. But we don't have any problems whatsoever. ' Hamilton heads into the ninth round of his Ferrari career 98 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri. Hamilton won a sprint race at the second round in China but has failed to finish on the podium since completing his blockbuster move from Mercedes to Ferrari.
Japan Times
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Japan Times
Lewis Hamilton labels rumors of friction with Ferrari engineer as 'noise'
Lewis Hamilton said he has a great relationship with Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami and that continuing speculation about friction between them is just noise. Terse radio exchanges at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton's race debut in the Italian Formula One team's red overalls, raised questions in March and they resurfaced in Monaco last Sunday. Then the seven-time world champion was heard asking Adami over the team radio, "are you upset with me?" after the Italian did not respond to earlier messages. Ferrari explained that silence as being due to radio and signal problems in a race that features cars speeding through a tunnel. "It was literally just there were areas where we had radio problems through the race, and I did not get information that I wanted," Hamilton told reporters at the Spanish Grand Prix on Thursday when asked for clarification. "We spoke afterwards." "There is a lot of speculation and most of it is BS. We have a great relationship. He is amazing to work with. He is a great guy, working so hard, we both are," added the Briton, who joined the team from Mercedes in January. "We don't always get it right every weekend. Do we have disagreements? Yes, like everyone does in relationships. But we work through them. We are both in it together. "We both want to win a world championship together, and we are both working towards lifting the team up. So it is just all noise, and we are not paying attention to it. It doesn't make a difference to the job we are trying to do." Hamilton said he and Adami, who previously worked with four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel and Spaniard Carlos Sainz, were learning more and more about each other and adapting the way they worked. "He has worked with lots of different drivers before. We don't have any problems whatsoever," said Hamilton, who won a sprint race in Shanghai but is otherwise yet to stand on a podium for Ferrari. The Briton finished fifth in Monaco, with teammate Charles Leclerc second in his home race. Hamilton's radio comments also put him in the spotlight in Miami when he sarcastically suggested that the team "have a tea break while you're at it" as he waited for a strategy call.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Daily Mail
The major change Lewis Hamilton must make NOW to steer his Ferrari career back on track: F1 Confidential
Lewis Hamilton should part company with Riccardo Adami, his strangely faltering race engineer, now. Only partly because he is likely to do so in the end, and nothing will be served by persevering with patient loyalty. The seven-time world champion has enough to contend with since moving to Ferrari - a slow car chief among his concerns, but also a new language and an alien culture as well as exacerbated expectation and a seam of serial underperformance - without communicating with his closest colleague as if at cross-purposes.
Free Malaysia Today
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Free Malaysia Today
Hamilton says talk of friction with engineer ‘all noise'
Scuderia Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton finished fifth at the Monaco GP, with teammate Charles Leclerc securing second in his home race. (EPA Images pic) BARCELONA : Lewis Hamilton said he has a great relationship with Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami and continuing speculation about friction between them is just noise. Terse radio exchanges at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton's race debut in the Italian Formula One team's red overalls, raised questions in March and they resurfaced in Monaco last Sunday. Then the seven-times world champion was heard asking Adami over the team radio 'are you upset with me?' after the Italian did not respond to earlier messages. Ferrari explained that silence as being due to radio and signal problems in a race that features cars speeding through a tunnel. 'It was literally just there were areas where we had radio problems through the race, and I did not get information that I wanted. We spoke afterwards,' Hamilton told reporters at the Spanish Grand Prix on Thursday when asked for clarification. 'There is a lot of speculation and most of it is BS. We have a great relationship. He is amazing to work with. He is a great guy, working so hard, we both are,' added the Briton, who joined from Mercedes in January. 'We don't always get it right every weekend. Do we have disagreements? Yes, like everyone does in relationships. But we work through them. We are both in it together. 'We both want to win a world championship together and we are both working towards lifting the team up. So it is just all noise and we are not paying attention to it. It doesn't make a difference to the job we are trying to do.' Hamilton said he and Adami, who previously worked with four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel and Spaniard Carlos Sainz, were learning more and more about each other and adapting the way they worked. 'He has worked with lots of different drivers before. We don't have any problems whatsoever,' said Hamilton, who won a sprint race in Shanghai but is otherwise yet to stand on a podium for Ferrari. The Briton finished fifth in Monaco, with teammate Charles Leclerc second in his home race. Hamilton's radio comments also put him in the spotlight in Miami when he suggested sarcastically that the team 'have a tea-break while you're at it' as he waited for a strategy call.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Telegraph
Lewis Hamilton rubbishes claims of rift with Ferrari race engineer
Lewis Hamilton has described speculation that he has a problem with Riccardo Adami, his new race engineer at Ferrari, as 'bull----', describing their relationship as 'great'. Hamilton, 40, has had a number of spiky radio exchanges with the Italian, one year older than him at 41, during their short time working together. But speaking ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, the seven-time world champion dismissed speculation that their relationship was a problem, describing Adami as 'a great guy' and 'amazing to work with'. 'We are both in it together,' Hamilton said. 'We both want to win a world championship together and we are both working towards lifting the team up. So it [the speculation] is all just noise and we are not paying attention to it. It doesn't make a difference to the job we are trying to do.' Hamilton may be right. And it is true that every driver has exchanged cross words with his race engineer, none more publicly than Red Bull's Max Verstappen and his engineer Gianpiero 'GP' Lambiase, and it does not seem to have done them any harm. But there is a growing body of evidence that Hamilton and Adami are not on the same wavelength, something Hamilton may be feeling more acutely after his longstanding and hugely successful relationship with Pete 'Bono' Bonnington at Mercedes, a man he trusted implicitly. The tensions with Adami started at the first race in Melbourne, when Hamilton complained that he had been 'lacking information' from his pit wall. He was also heard telling Adami – who was Sebastian Vettel's race engineer at Toro Rosso and later at Ferrari, where he worked most recently with Carlos Sainz – to 'leave me to it' when the Italian tried to speak to him about various settings. In Miami, Hamilton sarcastically told his team to ' have a tea break while you're at it ' after he felt Ferrari were far too slow to order his team mate Charles Leclerc aside when Hamilton was on a faster stint. 📻 | Lewis Hamilton: "In China I got out the way..." 📻 | Adami: "Understood... Understood we swap the cars in 17" 📻 | Lewis Hamilton: "And have a tea break while you're at it, come on" — La Gazzetta Ferrari (@GazzettaFerrari) May 4, 2025 Most recently, in Monaco, Hamilton appeared frustrated by the almost constant miscommunication between himself and Adami, frequently asking questions to which he received no answers, or else answers which did not relate to his questions. Speculation really ramped up after radio messages were broadcast between Hamilton and his team on the cool-down lap, when Hamilton tried to gee his team up, thanking them for fixing his car after a smash in practice. He got no response. Later in the lap, Hamilton asked: 'Are you upset with me or something?' Again he got no response. Ferrari's team principal Fred Vasseur has worked hard to quash the growing narrative. In China, Vasseur angrily accused Formula One of manipulating their coverage to make it look as if the team had ordered Hamilton to make way for the faster Leclerc, when in fact it was Hamilton who suggested doing so. In Monaco, Vasseur again said there were no issues. 'When the driver is asking something between Turn 1 and Turn 3, we have to wait to the tunnel to reply to avoid speaking with him during the corners,' he said. 'It's not that we are sleeping, it's not that we are having a beer on the pit wall, it's just because we have a section of the track where we agreed before to speak with him. 'Honestly, it's not a tension that the guy is asking something. He's between the walls, he's under pressure, he's fighting, he's at 300 kilometres per hour between the walls. I'm perfectly fine [with it].' On Thursday Hamilton once again moved to dismiss reports of a lack of compatibility with Adami, insisting they were on the same page. 'It [the messaging in Monaco] was literally just there were areas where we had radio problems through the race, and I did not get information that I wanted. We spoke afterwards. 'There is a lot of speculation and most of it is 'BS'[bull----]. We have a great relationship. He is amazing to work with. He is a great guy, working so hard. We both are. 'We don't always get it right every weekend. Do we have disagreements? Yes, like everyone does in relationships. But we work through them. We are both in it together. 'We both want to win a world championship together and we are both working towards lifting the team up. So it is just all noise and we are not paying attention to it. It doesn't make a difference to the job we are trying to do.' Rules to flex in Ferrari's favour? Hamilton will be hoping that his former team principal at Mercedes, Toto Wolff, was right when he predicted Ferrari would be the team to benefit most from a new technical directive being introduced at this race, limiting the amount of flex teams can exploit from their front wings under load. McLaren's rivals are hoping that the Woking team, who have been dominant this year, winning six out of eight races, will be pegged back by the change, although no one in the paddock seems to think it will make too much of a difference. 'I don't think it will shake the order up too much,' George Russell said. 'We're all flexing our wings. I think we'll all take a step backwards and naturally some will take a bigger step backwards than others. 'I do see [McLaren] coming back towards us slightly. But they are, on average, so far ahead. I wouldn't expect more than one tenth [of a second] swing up and down throughout the field.' Only Hamilton and Verstappen have won the Spanish Grand Prix since 2016 with the Briton winning five times and the Dutchman four.
