A tense back-and-forth followed by radio silence during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ignominiously summed up Lewis Hamilton‘s debut Formula 1 season with Ferrari.
Hamilton rounded off a torrid maiden season with the Maranello-based squad with an eighth-place finish at the Yas Marina Circuit last Sunday.
Having signed up for the Fred Vasseur-led team from Mercedes, the seven-time World Champion has publicly struggled to adapt to the SF-25 and the culture within the iconic Italian marque.
Without a single Grand Prix podium to his name yet, the 40-year-old’s demeanour throughout 2025 has been dejected to say the least.
However, his radio comms during the 58-lap race, is a revealing insight on just how difficult the Briton has found gelling in with his team, starting with his first point of contact – his race engineer, Ricardo Adami.
On countless occasions, this year, Hamilton has been at odds with the Italian. Abu Dhabi was no different.
Hamilton seemingly snapped back at Adami when the former first informed him about a track limits warning.
“Pay attention track limits Turn 1, we got the second strike,” Adami had reported before Hamilton retorted, “Let me know when I get the first one, man! Sh, man!”
The tension piled up as the 40-year-old was trying to slice through the field – after a third successive Q1 exit saw him start the race from 16th place.
Adami had just informed Hamilton that Sauber’s rookie Gabriel Bortoleto was the next car ahead of him. This also seemed to irk the former Mercedes driver.
“Stop telling me I’m racing people. I know I’m racing him, man. Just leave me to it. I’m racing everyone ahead of me,” replied a noticeably annoyed Hamilton.
This bickering quickly turned heated again when, seeing the Haas of Oliver Bearman go off track, Hamilton relayed the message back to his pit wall through Adami.
When the Italian responded with, “Okay, reporting,” Hamilton had already had enough. He jumped back, saying, “No need to confirm, man. I’m just telling you!”
Another acknowledgement later, Hamilton was visibly fuming. “Stop confirming!” he snapped back.
Radio silence ends uncomfortable Ferrari F1 debut for Hamilton
After 24 rounds of racing in 2025, Hamilton finished a substantial 86 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
At Abu Dhabi, Hamilton executed a stellar recovery drive to claw back eight positions to end in the top-10 for one final time this season.
Reflecting on his maiden season with the team, Hamilton said, “Long season, guys… Thank you for your kindness, I’m grateful for all the hard work. I’ll always fight for you guys, always. That’s it.”
But this garnered absolutely no response back from Adami, prompting Hamilton to chime in, saying, “Did you get that message? The one time you don’t reply…”
After a substantial period of radio silence, however, Adami responded with, “Yea we got it. Sorry we were talking. Thank you very much, it was awesome working with you. Grazie mille.”
This back-and-forth unfortunately underscores Hamilton’s debut season with Ferrari aptly – awkward, and riddled with compatibility issues.
Can 2026 be a year of redemption for the duo?
READ MORE – Ferrari downplays Lewis Hamilton’s ‘rage and anger’ reaction to disappointing 2025
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