Lewis Hamilton has hit back at criticism of his relationship with Ferrari engineer Riccardo Adami after a frustrating weekend in Monaco.
Hamilton finished fifth and on the cooldown lap, he thanked the team for repairing his car for qualifying after crashing in final practice but later on the lap, he asked: “are you upset with me or something?” and there was no response.
It came after Hamilton was given a three-grid place penalty for impeding Max Verstappen, which was caused by wrong information from his engineer Adami.
On the silence on the radio post-race in Monaco, Hamilton said: “It was literally just, there were areas that we just had radio problems through the race.
“I didn’t get all the information that I wanted, and that was it.”
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Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was despondent after only finishing fifth at the Monaco Grand Prix
After lots of attention on Hamilton and Adami’s radio exchanges at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver stated the conversations were “over-egged”.
Hamilton says there are “no problems” between him and Adami, who has previously been a race engineer to Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz at Ferrari.
“There’s a lot of speculation. I mean most of it’s b******t. Ultimately, we have a great relationship,” he said.
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Listen in on the radio messages from Lewis Hamilton’s first race with Ferrari throughout the Australian Grand Prix
“He’s been amazing to work with. He’s a great guy. We’re working so hard. We both are and we don’t always get it right every weekend.
“We have disagreements, like everyone does in relationships, but we work through them. We are both in it together, both want to win a championship together and towards lifting the team up.
“So it’s just all noise, and we don’t really pay any attention to it. It can continue if you want, but it doesn’t make any difference to the job that we’re trying to do.”
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Confusion on the Ferrari team radio causes Lewis Hamilton to impede Max Verstappen during Q1 at the Monaco GP
Hamilton not completely ruling out 2025 title
Hamilton is 98 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri after eight rounds, with two-thirds of the season remaining.
He is yet to stand on the podium as a Ferrari driver but has not ruled out being in the title fight this year.
“I think we are working on next year’s car, whether or not we are 100 per cent, I can’t comment on,” he said.
“Next year is the championship that’s currently open. This one will be a lot harder to win but it’s not closed and it will be interesting to see what happens this weekend.”
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Drivers have their say on how impacted teams could be with the new flexi-wing clampdown coming to the Spanish Grand Prix
Hamilton is perhaps hoping that changes to the technical regulations about flexi-wings, which could change the pecking order, will bring Ferrari closer to the front.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff thinks Ferrari have the most to gain but Hamilton says: “I don’t know what gives him that impression but I hope he’s right”.
He added: “We have taken a bit of a step. I can’t say just from one race that we’ve fixed anything, but I’m hoping this weekend we can continue with the progress we have made in the last two races, particularly the last race with qualifying.
“If we can produce that again this weekend, it would be great.”
Sky Sports F1’s Spanish GP schedule
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Ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix we take a look back at some of the most dramatic moments from previous races at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
Friday May 30
8.50am: F3 Practice
10am: F2 Practice
12pm: Spanish GP Practice One (session starts at 12.30pm)
1.55pm: F3 Qualifying
2.50pm: F2 Qualifying
3.35pm: Spanish GP Practice Two (session starts at 4pm)
5.15pm: The F1 Show
Saturday May 31
9am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Spanish GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.10pm: Spanish GP Qualifying build-up*
3pm: SPANISH GP QUALIFYING*
Sunday June 1
7.25am: F3 Feature Race
8.55am: F2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Spanish GP build-up*
2pm: The SPANISH GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Chequered Flag: Spanish GP reaction
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event
F1’s European triple header concludes with the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona this weekend, with live coverage starting from Friday on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
