Finger pointed at radio talk after Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari “mysteries” at F1 Monaco GP

An aspect of the “communication” between Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari has been called out for improvement.

The F1 Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday was the latest race where the team radio exchanges between Hamilton and his engineer were occasionally awkward.

At one stage Hamilton asked: “Are you upset with me or something?”

It becomes the next chapter in a saga which has run since the first grand prix of Hamilton’s high-profile alliance with Ferrari this year, when he joined forces with Riccardo Adami, previously the voice in the ear of Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz.

Ferrari delivered another respectable result in Monaco, with Charles Leclerc second behind Lando Norris, and Hamilton fifth.

"Communication barrier" cited for Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari

“I think it’s a great result for them,” Jenson Button told Sky Sports.

“For them to work out why Lewis wasn’t as close, why he ended up so far back, is important.

“Maybe it’s traffic, maybe he took it more gently through the traffic, as the other guys were pushing on. I think that might have been where the time was lost.

“The only team that did better was McLaren.”

The F1 Monaco Grand Prix was marred by the two-stop strategy which was imposed for the first time.

It caused “manipulated” results in the midfield, according to Williams’ Sainz, and also caused an usual result for Hamilton.

He passed Fernando Alonso and Isack Hadjar to finish in the top five but he was a minute behind winner Norris.

“I don’t think it all came down to the traffic,” Naomi Schiff analysed.

“They said a chunk might have been traffic, but that there’s a big part they still need to investigate.

“It was strange. That’s one of the mysteries of the race.

“He was in his own race, by himself, so there’s no real reason why he should have been so far back.

“It seems like they keep having issues over the radio.

“He had a grid penalty because of bad radio. They had issues at Imola.

“It’s definitely something that needs to be worked on.

“It may have been a communication barrier…”

Hamilton admitted his radio communication with Adami wasn’t always clear.

But team principal Fred Vasseur insisted there was no tension between them.