Ferrari’s Deputy Team Principal Jerome d’Ambrosio defended the team’s strategy in Formula 1‘s Austrian Grand Prix amid a tense mid-race radio exchange with Lewis Hamilton.
The seven-time World Champion matched his best result of the season with the Scuderia – fourth – after a marked improvement in the team’s performance at the Red Bull Ring.
Despite lacking significant performance compared to the McLarens, which scampered off into the distance, Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc demonstrated an upturn in trajectory for the SF-25, with the Monegasque finishing one place ahead in third.
However, during the race, Hamilton was heard to have had another terse trade of words with race engineer Riccardo Adami.
With 20 laps of the Grand Prix remaining, Hamilton frantically told the Italian: “My tyres are OK,” before adding: “Can I extend? How many more laps left?”
Adami informed Hamilton of the information and subsequently made the call to bring him in, which Hamilton audibly disagreed with, before obeying the instruction.
After the race, d’Ambrosio, having stood in for Team Principal Fred Vasseur, who returned home for “personal reasons”, made a case for the team’s reasoning in bringing Hamilton in.
“In the end, you know, it’s nothing out of the norm. What we tried to do as a team was to – Austria is very much like that – you try to do your optimal strategy,” he explained.
“So, you know, you try to optimise your race time and that’s what we did with both drivers.
“To be honest, there was no incentive in doing anything different because [the] McLarens were clearly far ahead and George [Russell] quite far behind.
“So, we were in between them with both cars and we just did a standard optimal strategy and that was the most straightforward thing to do.”
D’Ambrosio understands Hamilton’s queries
D’Ambrosio, who completed one full season as an F1 driver in 2011, was very much understanding of Hamilton’s viewpoint in the situation, appreciating that a driver is always keen to query a team’s call if they think it isn’t correct.
“From a driver’s perspective, your question always is, ‘Is it the best? Can we do something else?’,” the Belgian addressed.
“They’re racers, they’re Formula 1 drivers, that’s what they should do and that’s what they do.
“But in the end, just show Lewis now and you look at the numbers and yeah, that’s what made sense.”
After the race, Hamilton admitted that Adami’s call was the correct one, but said that, at the time, he felt he was able to continue without changing tyres.
“Yeah, I didn’t know how many laps there were, to be honest, at the time,” he added.
“Honestly, the pace wasn’t looking great, but I felt like I could keep going. The balance was OK, but ultimately, I think it’s the right decision.”
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