Sky Sports F1 star Ted Kravitz calls out key Ferrari figure over Lewis Hamilton treatment
Ferrari engineer Riccardo Adami has faced criticism for his approach towards Lewis Hamilton. It came as the Brit suffered a torrid weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix, which included two Q1 exits in both qualifying sessions held at the Formula 1 Sprint event at Circuit Spa-Francorchamps.
Following a disappointing 15th-place finish in Saturday's sprint race, matters worsened for the seven-time F1 champion when he encountered difficulties during qualifying. Hamilton set a rapid lap in Q1, but his time was subsequently scrubbed from the records.
He received a penalty for breaching track limits at the Raidillon corner, meaning he failed to progress to Q2. This left him just 16th on the timesheets before Ferrari confirmed hours before Sunday's race that Hamilton would start from the pit lane.
Speaking over the radio, race engineer Adami seemed to display little compassion in the aftermath. When Hamilton enquired airwaves: "Is everything okay?" following his qualifying attempt, he received a curt response. "Track limits at turn four," came the blunt reply.
After Hamilton questioned whether this meant he had been eliminated from Q1, the Italian responded: "Yeah. Lap time is deleted. P16." Sky Sports F1 reporter Ted Kravitz highlighted Adami's approach to that conversation as he discussed what had happened on his Ted's Notebook programme.
He suggested that Hamilton's previous engineer at Mercedes, Peter Bonnington, would have managed the situation with greater sensitivity. 'Bono' worked with the Brit for more than a decade and the pair had a strong rapport, which is something Hamilton has yet to find with Adami.
"Did you think it was a bit terse on the radio between him and Riccardo Adami, saying, 'Is there something wrong?" Kravitz said. "I don't know whether I expected a bit more empathy. To say, 'Ah, I'm sorry, Lewis. Bad luck, mate. You're out, hard one by, pal.' The kind of things Bono would have said."
Hamilton, 40, made no effort to hide his frustration afterwards, offering an apology to both his team and supporters as his difficult 2025 campaign rolls on. I'm just really sorry to the team," he said. "Hard work with the filming day that we did, and all the preparation, and then you come here and don't make it through Q1. It's unacceptable. Really sorry."
It is far from the first time the relationship between Hamilton and Adami has been questioned since his move to Ferrari. There were several examples of tense conversations between them over the radio earlier in the season which caused so much of a stir that the racer felt the need to speak publicly about how he is working with his new race engineer.
He said: "We're constantly learning more and more about each other, we're constantly adapting to the way both of us like to work. There's a lot of speculation. I mean, most of it is BS. Ultimately, we have a great relationship. He's been amazing to work with, he's a great guy, working so hard – we both are – and we don't always get it right every weekend. We have disagreements, like everyone does in relationships, but we work through them."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Max Verstappen condemns delayed Belgian Grand Prix start amid wet weather
Max Verstappen condemned as unnecessary the FIA decision to delay the start of the Belgian Grand Prix because of adverse weather conditions, but his view was countered by George Russell, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, who insisted any other call from the governing body would have been 'stupidity' given the conditions and the dangerous nature of the Spa‑Francorchamps circuit. The start was delayed by an hour and 20 minutes after rain swept into Spa just before the race. The FIA opted not to proceed after one formation lap because the visibility given the spray from the cars was so poor. The circuit is enormously fast and challenging and can be dangerous even in good conditions. There have been two fatalities in recent years, Anthoine Hubert in 2019 and Dilano van 't Hoff in 2023. Verstappen, whose Red Bull car had been readied to make the most of a wet race, was insistent that the drivers could have coped and that as they began racing they would have been able to clear the standing water. When asked when he believed the race should have begun, he said: 'Three o'clock, straight away. It was not even raining. Between turn one and five there was quite a bit of water but if you do two or three laps behind the safety car, then it would have been a lot more clear, and the rest of the track was ready to go.' The Dutchman, who finished fourth in the race won by McLaren's Oscar Piastri, concluded with a swipe at the FIA. 'Of course at the end of the day they do what they want, right? I mean, they decide. I just find it is a bit of a shame for everyone, you will never see these classic kind of wet races any more.' Russell, however, was among other drivers – including Piastri and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc – who felt the decision had been correct. 'As a racer, you always want to get going, you love driving in the rain,' he said. 'But the fact is, when you're doing over 200 miles an hour out of Eau Rouge, you literally cannot see anything, you may as well have a blindfold on. [That] isn't racing; it's just stupidity. Considering it was clearly going to be dry from 4pm onwards, they made the right call.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Verstappen's view, though, was echoed by Lewis Hamilton, who started 18th but finished seventh after he called the moment to change over to slick tyres perfectly, given the track had dried very quickly. 'I would agree [with Verstappen],' he said. 'My car was set up for that [wet conditions], and they waited for it to dry. Especially at the end, it was a dry line with hardly any spray.'
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton frustrated by ‘extreme' Spa rain call
On Thursday evening in the Ardennes hundreds of team members from various series, drivers, journalists and assorted others gathered on the track at Spa-Francorchamps to 'Run for Anthoine'. The annual event is organised by the Alpine driver Pierre Gasly in memory of his close friend Anthoine Hubert, who died in 2019, at the age of just 22, after a multi-car collision in a wet feature Formula 2 race at Spa. Hubert is far from the only driver to lose his life at the notoriously fast circuit, which is frequently subject to torrential rain. Just four years after his death, Dutch teenager Dilano van 't Hoff was also killed in similar wet conditions. In total there have been 53 fatalities, including the deaths of four marshals, since Spa's opening in 1924. All of which goes a long way to explaining why race control erred on the side of caution when weighing up when to pull the trigger on Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, which was immediately preceded by torrential rain. To call that caution excessive, however, would be an understatement. For the thousands of bedraggled fans watching from the grandstands, most of whom camp close by in the days leading up to the race, the delay was hugely frustrating. Earlier, they had watched a very entertaining F2 race in similarly damp conditions. Everyone was excited by the prospect of witnessing the world's best drivers try to negotiate the treacherous Spa circuit in the wet. Millions more watching on television probably gave up and went and did something else. The Fagnes chicane proved to be a challenge in our Feature Race at Spa! 👀 #F2 #BelgianGP — Formula 2 (@Formula2) July 27, 2025 It was not a bad call. In the end, what we got was a pretty dull affair. By the time the race finally got under way, behind a safety car, 1hr 20min after the official start time, the track was rapidly drying. Race control still left the safety car out for four laps to clear more of the standing water, with the result that there was a dry line already visible. Race-winner Oscar Piastri needed just four race laps to consider switching to dry tyres and within eight laps of actual racing all the drivers were on slicks, and from then on it was processional. What did the drivers think? Both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, who have 11 F1 world titles between them, were firmly of the opinion that the race could have started on time at 3pm. 'It was not even raining by then,' Verstappen pointed out. 'OK there was quite a bit of [standing] water between Turns 1 and 5, but two laps behind the safety car then it would have been a lot more clear. So it's a bit of a shame. 'We [Red Bull] made a choice with the set-up for wet weather and then they only allowed us to drive in almost slick conditions! We spoke after [the recent wet-weather race at] Silverstone to be a little bit cautious with the decisions but this was at the other extreme for me.' Hamilton agreed the race could have started on time, although he did say the drivers had to take some of the responsibility following those post-Silverstone chats. Race control was listening to the drivers' feedback as they lapped behind the safety car and nearly all of them, especially those at the back, were complaining it was unsafe. 'Lots of drivers in the last race said we shouldn't have restarted, because of a lack of visibility. So as soon as someone said 'visibility is pretty bad'...it wasn't great but it wasn't as bad as the last race… I think they just waited. 'They still did a good job. Of course we did miss some of the extreme wet-weather racing, which would have been nice.' Fans short-changed No one is saying it is an easy call. Spa is a notoriously dangerous circuit, with an extremely dangerous section between T1 (La Source) and T7 (Les Combes). The drivers go through a compression at Eau Rouge and then up a steep incline on the other side, exiting onto a blind crest onto the Kemmel Straight. Although changes were made following Hubert's death, and there is now more run-off on the left-hand side of Eau Rouge and Raidillon in particular, with the barriers moved back quite significantly, it is still possible for cars to go off, hit the barrier and bounce back onto the racing line. George Russell was probably in the majority of drivers who felt race control got it right. The Mercedes driver, who is a director of the Grand Prix Drivers Association, said it would have been 'stupidity' to begin the race any earlier. 'As a racer, you always want to get going, you love driving in the rain, but the fact is, when you're doing over 200 miles an hour out of Eau Rouge, you literally can't see anything,' Russell said. 'You may as well have a blindfold on. It isn't racing, it's just stupidity. 'So I think, considering it was clearly going to be dry from four o'clock onwards, I think they made the right call.' But an element of danger and risk is also part and parcel of Formula One. Fans were denied what could have been an exciting race on Sunday. If the Spa circuit needs further modifications to make it safer, fine, but they surely ought to be able to race in the wet. Ex-driver Karun Chandhok spoke for millions when he posted on social media a few minutes before the restart: 'Have we just given up on having wet races anymore? They're going to be on slicks in a few minutes!' He was absolutely right.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Oscar Piastri eases away from Norris to win rain-hit Belgian Grand Prix
Calm assurance and closure were once more the hallmarks of victory for Oscar Piastri at the Belgian Grand Prix. The 24-year-old Australian displayed purpose, conviction and touch behind the wheel to grind out a win in challenging conditions and under no little pressure in seeing off his McLaren teammate Lando Norris. The title fight will be decided between the two drivers and, as at Spa, single significant moments may prove decisive. In what was far from a thriller, Piastri won with a dominant drive to beat Norris into second and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc into third. Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull in the team's first race without the recently dismissed team principal Christian Horner in charge, while Lewis Hamilton made the most of the changeable, wet-dry conditions to move from 18th on the grid to finish seventh. After a delayed start of almost an hour and 20 minutes because of heavy rain in the Ardennes mountains, when racing finally began in earnest Piastri pounced to take the lead from Norris with an opportunistic and decisive move. He launched it with almost breathtaking commitment. As the pair plunged down the hill into Eau Rouge on the first racing lap in anger, Piastri scythed into the slot just under Norris's gearbox in an all or nothing, fearless display. They hurtled up through Raidillon and thence with the slipstream on the Kemmel straight it was advantage Piastri as he sped past and into the lead at Les Combes. Norris was powerless to resist and not at fault – as his team principal, Andrea Stella, noted – the driver leading the pack out on the first lap is always vulnerable; indeed a lesson Piastri had learned from the sprint race on Saturday when Verstappen pulled an identical move on him. He was aware of its import. 'I knew that lap one was probably my best chance of winning the race,' he said. 'I lifted as little as I dared through Eau Rouge and then it was enough.' Having got to the front he was relentless in grinding out a victory and even a counter-tyre strategy from Norris could not bring him quite back into contention. Yet it required a steely resolve and, with the decision to make his medium tyres last to the finish, no little finesse, as Norris chased him down on the more durable hard rubber. For all that the McLaren is easy on its rubber, Piastri eased it on with a gentle mastery. It was, then, another combative statement of intent from the Australian, demonstrating that even when he is on the back foot he retains a fierce determination. Once he had retaken the lead from second on the grid he was in assured control from the front, with the same measured, calm confidence that is almost disarming as it becomes ominously clear to his rivals that he has all the traits of a world champion in waiting. It was his sixth win from 13 races this season and for all that Norris took the previous two on the trot, really no other driver has matched the Australian's consistency. What had begun in Melbourne with a win for Norris has since become very much bossed by Piastri, who has laid down another marker that it will be remarkably hard to beat him this season, but it will be a hard-fought show. He now leads Norris by 16 points with 11 meetings remaining in a contest that increasingly looks like it will go down to the wire. Certainly Stella believed that there was little to choose between his drivers and noted that it would likely come down to the minutiae of execution that would tell for the title. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Norris might consider that on his chase he dropped a little time, two lock-ups at La Source and going wide once at Pouhon but they were not enough to be truly decisive. He had closed to within 3.4sec by the end but for the final laps Piastri still had enough in the locker to hold his lead. Norris, too, conceded that he had been well beaten and that he did not believe his minor errors had made the difference. 'Oscar just did a good job [at the start], nothing more to say, committed a bit more through Eau Rouge,' he said. 'That was it, Oscar deserved it today. It's shoulda‑woulda‑coulda. Oscar deserved it and I'm sure he made a couple of mistakes, too. I couldn't have won today.' With rain having swept across the circuit on and off all day, another deluge began just before the start and the race was delayed after a single formation lap, because of the poor visibility caused by the spray. The cars returned to the pit lane for more an hour and 20 minutes until the FIA deemed it could begin behind the safety car and with a rolling start. The long delay was questioned by some with the track drying – notably Red Bull and Verstappen, who had their car set up for a wet race – but the consensus was the governing body had made the right call to err on the side of caution on a circuit that is a high-speed challenge in perfect conditions. An earlier opening in more difficult conditions would maybe have made for a more interesting race, but it is hard not to imagine that Piastri would not have exhibited similarly iron control even then as – rain or shine – the Australian very much had the measure of Spa.
