In fact, Ted Kravitz has revealed that Lewis Hamilton’s annoyance actually stemmed from an abundance of reporting that accused the driver and his race engineer Riccardo Adami of having bad blood.
Lewis Hamilton’s mindset change in China
Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari debut in Australia didn’t go to plan. After a challenging qualifying and a rainstorm that further complicated matters, the seven-time World Champion brought home his new SF-25 in 10th.
Fans and pundits were quick to leap into the thick of the Lewis Hamilton discourse, and one of the big talking points had to do with the way Hamilton and new race engineer Riccardo Adami were speaking on the radio.
At several points during the race, Adami offered advice on overtaking, DRS, and weather, as Hamilton repeatedly said, “Leave it to me, please.” By the end of the event, it was clear that the driver was annoyed, snapping back about the team’s “missed opportunity.”
Much moralizing took place about whether Hamilton could have been more respectful, whether there was already a significant communication breakdown between the seven-time World Champion and his new team, and the driver also hit out at media regarding the fact that there are other drivers who are “worse” on the radio than him.
As a result, heading into the Chinese Grand Prix, Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz noted that Hamilton seemed “annoyed” in the media pen, though it took him a while to put his finger on the cause.
“I’ve got to tell you a story,” Kravitz said.
“When he came to the pen on Thursday, I was, as it happened, the first person who spoke to him. I could tell he was annoyed about something. I asked a fairly anodyne question about what was on his to-do list.
“It was only until later when an Austrian journalist, who was doing a feature about engineers, asked Lewis a question. Then I knew what Lewis was annoyed about.
“He was annoyed that people — and we were as guilty as anybody — had put together the radio messages between him and Riccardo Adami, and some people were interpreting that as if they have a bad relationship.
“He said after he won the sprint race ‘I came here with a bit more aggression.’ I could tell that on Thursday. He was annoyed, and he used that to motivate himself.”
As Kravitz noted, Hamilton took that sprint victory — from pole position, nonetheless — and decisively proved that the communication struggles are already a thing of the past.
