Lewis Hamilton looks tense as he faces the media while wearing a red Ferrari cap
Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari career has failed to live up to the hype so far
Untelevised team radio footage from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix has revealed the moment Oscar Piastri was warned about Lando Norris’s struggles to overtake Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton.
It comes after Andrea Stella, the McLaren team principal, told media including PlanetF1.com of his pride that the race engineers of Piastri and Norris worked together to see off Hamilton during the race in Jeddah.
Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri race engineers worked together to see off Lewis Hamilton
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
McLaren’s impressive start to the season continued in Saudi Arabia last weekend as Piastri claimed his third victory in the last four races to take the lead of the World Championship for the first time in his career.
Piastri currently holds a 10-point lead over team-mate Norris, who recovered to fourth on race day after an accident in the final stage of qualifying.
Norris’s recovery was briefly held up by Hamilton, who after being overtaken at the final corner, used DRS to repass the McLaren on consecutive laps in the early stages of the race.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after the race, Stella estimated that the time Norris lost in his battle with Hamilton ultimately cost him the chance of passing the lead Ferrari of Charles Leclerc for third place in the closing laps.
Stella went on to reveal that Norris’s race engineer Will Joseph took it upon himself to warn Tom Stallard, Piastri’s engineer, of the challenges of passing Hamilton.
And an untelevised team radio snippet from the race has uncovered the moment Stallard passed the message on to Piastri after rejoining behind Hamilton following his only pit stop on Lap 19.
As he closes in on the yet-to-stop Ferrari, Piastri is told: “Against Lando, Hamilton was letting him through into [Turn] 27 and passing back into 1.
“Best to overtake into 1.”
Piastri soon took matters into his own hands, using DRS moments later to make a bold pass on Hamilton into Turn 22, arguably the fastest and most challenging part of the Jeddah circuit, rather than waiting until the start of the following lap to make a move.
Asked how important it was for Piastri to get past Hamilton quickly after his stop, Stella revealed the teamwork at play between Joseph and Stallard on the McLaren pit wall.
He told media including PlanetF1.com: “You’ve given me the opportunity here to actually tell you a story.
“The story is that Lando’s race engineer proactively told Oscar’s race engineer: ‘We struggled to pass Lewis because we attempted twice in Corner 27 and he passed us back in Corner 1, so make sure that Oscar knows that and he gives it a go directly in Corner 1.’
“I was very proud while on the pit wall to hear that. I didn’t need to prompt anything.
“I was just a spectator to an example of the great team spirit and team work that we have at McLaren.
“So well done to Will Joseph, well done to Tom Stallard, well done to the team of people.”
He added: “I think for a podium finish today [Norris] would have needed not to lose the time with Hamilton.
“Obviously, Hamilton is Lewis Hamilton. He knows very well how to race and for a couple of laps he managed to pass Lando.
“And I think this cost us the time that ultimately means that we could not give it a go at trying to overtake Leclerc.”
Hamilton went on finish a distant seventh, four places and a massive 30.969 seconds behind Leclerc in the same car.
The seven-time World Champion revealed after the race that he has been forced to “cancel some plans” this week in order to get to the bottom of his current issues ahead of the next race in Miami on May 4.
Hamilton’s revelation came after he let slip that the Ferrari team and his bosses “are not happy” with his performances so far this season following his blockbuster move from Mercedes last winter.
Speaking after the race, however, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur insisted that Hamilton retains his unwavering support.
And he described the suggestion that Hamilton’s performances have waned alarmingly over recent times as “****ing bull***t.”
He told media including PlanetF1.com on Sunday in Jeddah: “I will be 2,000 per cent behind him.
“I will give him support and we will start from tomorrow morning to try to find solutions and reasons and to work on it early in the morning.
“If you have a look on what he did in China or what he did in the race in Bahrain last week, or even on the first part of the session in this weekend, the potential is there for sure.
“We just have to adjust the balance because we are, collectively, Lewis and us, we are struggling with the balance of his car and [how] he is working the tyres.
“It’s a kind of negative spot but I think the potential of the car is there and we will try to solve that.”
Put to him that Hamilton’s form has dropped off dramatically, he responded: “It’s not dramatically.
“We did five races so far. I know that you want to have the big headlines tomorrow that ‘Fred said this.’
“But this is f***ing bull***t. At the end of the day, we are in competition. You have ups and downs.
“When we have ups, we are not World Champions. When we have downs, we are not nowhere. It’s just a competition.
“I’m not sure that you draw the same conclusion with Max [Verstappen] last week when he was seventh [in Bahrain].
“It is like it is. The competition is tight.
“You have 10 cars and a couple of tenths. Have a look at Max. He won in Japan. He finished 30 seconds behind Piastri in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia he was P2 and had pole position.
“We just have to stay calm. You can do whatever you want. I don’t want to worry for you. At least for us as a team, we have to work step by step.
“I think it paid off last year to do hundredths of seconds and hundredths of seconds and we need to keep the same approach.
“I will never be the guy who says we are World Champions or we are nowhere.”
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