With Lewis Hamilton moving to Ferrari after more than a decade at Mercedes, where he had the same team around him for years, an adjustment period was always expected. One of the biggest changes he faced was parting ways with long-term race engineer Peter Bonnington. His tense start with new race engineer Riccardo Adami only added to the challenge.
Hamilton had a heated exchange with Adami at the season opener in Australia. The Italian repeatedly instructed him to activate the K1 button repeatedly, prompting the seven-time champion to snap back, telling him to leave him alone. This led to criticism from fans and experts over his radio behavior.
Lewis Hamilton has hit out at what he feels is exaggerated coverage of his F1 radio exchanges with new Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami ️
Hamilton drew a pointed comparison to the radio exchanges between Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. pic.twitter.com/M27WK20EtS
— Crash.net – Formula 1 (@CRASH_NET_F1) March 20, 2025
Hamilton, however, brought Max Verstappen into the discussion, insisting that his exchange was nothing compared to the treatment Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, endures. He argued that Verstappen has rarely been criticized for it and felt that too much was made of his own interaction with Adami.
Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz, however, countered Hamilton’s claim, explaining that Verstappen has been criticized for his radio exchanges as well.
“Of course, we do say something about that a lot of the time,” Kravitz said on The F1 Show before. He explained that both Verstappen and Lambiase have acknowledged this as their way of working, with radio messages that can get feisty at times.
Their exchanges have been so intense at times that even Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has been asked about them. The Briton summed up their dynamic perfectly—comparing them to an old married couple.
“i honestly see max as a younger brother,” la mbiase says. “we can talk about anything and anyone at any time. We’re at the point where we just felt completely relaxed and at ease with each other” pic.twitter.com/nTFmZCxCzm
— ale¹ (@verstayppen) March 20, 2025
While there may be plenty of criticism about the dynamic between Verstappen and Lambiase, what truly matters is that they have built one of the most successful partnerships in F1. Despite their frequent bickering, they work well together and have secured four Drivers’ Championships.
Hamilton will now aim to develop a similar partnership with Adami if he hopes to clinch his record-breaking eighth title.
