Lewis Hamilton fires back at 'BS noise' about race engineer relationship

Lewis Hamilton insists there is “no problem” between him and his F1 race engineer Riccardo Adami after another race in which their radio communications came under the spotlight. 

The seven-time world champion recovered from a three-place grid penalty for impeding Max Verstappen in qualifying to finish fifth at last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix. 

Hamilton picked up his penalty after he received incorrect information from Adami, and there appeared to be further miscommunication during the grand prix itself, prompting speculation and suggestions the pair are not seeing eye-to-eye during the Briton’s so far difficult transition to life at Ferrari.

Speaking to media including Crash.net ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton stressed he and Adami have a “great relationship”.

“We’re constantly learning more and more about each other, we’re constantly adapting to the way both of us like to work. He’s worked with lots of different drivers before. We don’t have any problems at all,” Hamilton said.

“There’s a lot of speculation - most of it is BS,” the 40-year-old continued. “Ultimately we have a great relationship. He’s been amazing to work with, he’s a great guy.

“We are working so hard, we both are, and we don’t get it right every weekend. Do we have disagreements? Like everyone does in relationships but we work through them.

“We’re both in it together. We both want to win a championship together. We’re both working towards lifting the team up.

“It’s just all noise and we don’t really pay any attention to it. It can continue if you want but it doesn’t make any difference to the job we’re trying to do.”

Lewis Hamilton explains ‘are you upset with me?’ message

A further radio exchange between Hamilton and Adami came to light following the race.

After Hamilton took the chequered flag and had been informed of his finishing position and that he had “lost a lot of time in traffic”, he asked: “Are you upset with me or something?” There was no response to this message.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur dismissed the slow-down lap message after the race.

"Because when the driver is asking something between turn one and turn three, we have to wait [until] the tunnel to reply, to avoid to speak with him during the corners,” he told media including Crash.net in Monaco.

"It's not that we are sleeping, it's not that we are having a beer on the pit wall, it's just because we have a section of the track, where we agreed before to speak with him.

"Honestly, it's not a tension that the guy is asking something. He's between the wall, he's under pressure, he's fighting. I spoke with him after the race, he was not upset at all.”

Asked if he ever got an answer to his question, Hamilton replied: “There were areas we had radio problems in the race. I didn’t get all the information that I wanted and yeah we spoke afterwards.”