SHANGHAI (AP) — Lewis Hamilton Denies Tension with Ferrari Race Engineer Riccardo Adami

Lewis Hamilton has denied any frustration with Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami, despite frequently cutting off what he described as unnecessary radio chatter between them during the Australian Grand Prix.

“Everyone overreacted,” Hamilton said on Thursday.

Hamilton had a weekend to forget in his Ferrari debut in Melbourne last week, after qualifying eighth and finishing tenth, salvaging just one point. The result dampened the preseason hype that had painted the Prancing Horse as a potential challenger to McLaren.

Hamilton dismissed the rumors that he was upset with the team’s operations at Albert Park, including a strategy call that may have cost him a better finish and led to an emotional radio outburst. This came on top of Adami’s mid-race radio communications, which the seven-time world champion had to shut down.

“I was very polite in how I said it. I told him, ‘Leave it to me, please,’” Hamilton explained. “I wasn’t swearing. I was just really struggling with the car at that moment and needed to fully focus on a couple of things.”

Hamilton backed Riccardo Adami—who previously worked with Carlos Sainz Jr., now at Williams, and retired four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel—saying that all it took was a constructive post-race conversation.

“Afterwards, it was like, ‘Listen brother, I don’t need that information, but if you want to share it, here’s when I’d like to hear it. This is how I feel in the car, and at these points, here’s what I need and what I don’t,’” Hamilton shared.

“That’s all it was. No big deal. It was done with a smile, and we moved on,” he added.

He also noted that his recent radio exchanges pale in comparison to those of his F1 rivals, especially Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

“Go listen to some of the radio calls between others and their engineers — way worse,” Hamilton pointed out.

“The conversations Max has had with his engineer over the years — the abuse that poor guy has taken — and you never write about that. But you wrote about the tiniest disagreement I had with mine,” he said.

Hamilton took the setbacks in stride.

“It wasn’t the race we wanted, but it’s not the time to throw the toys out of the pram. It is what it is.”

“One small thing could’ve made a huge difference in the result, but we move forward,” he emphasized. “Everyone’s still motivated. Everyone’s got their head up, and I think the energy is still good in the garage, so we’re not defined by that one race.”