Lewis Hamilton criticized for conduct against Ferrari race engineer by 65-year-old F1 pundit

F1 presenter Martin Brundle criticized Lewis Hamilton for his conduct against race engineer Riccardo Adami during his debut at the Australian Grand Prix. Throughout the race, the Briton could be heard asking his race engineer not to pass a lot of information.

Hamilton's debut with Ferrari in Australia turned out to be a major disappointment as he was lagging behind the Williams of Alex Albon for most of the race. Moreover, a late pit call from the team threw him to the back of the grid and he only finished in P10.

While it is understood that the 40-year-old is still acquainting himself with the car, F1 pundit Martin Brundle did not find his debut impressive.

"Eighth on the grid behind his team-mate Leclerc, losing out a little in the first corner and following Alex Albon’s Williams for what seemed like an age, and then being passed around the outside of the fast Turn 9 by a spectacularly recovering [Oscar] Piastri on the final lap – consigning Lewis to one point in 10th place – was not where he should be," Brundle wrote in his Sky Sports column.

Brundle criticized another aspect of Hamilton's debut. Multiple times during the race, Hamilton's race engineer Riccardo Adami kept passing on information like the availability of K1, etc. All of these times, Lewis Hamilton asked him to stop and "leave [him] to it."

"I don't understand why Lewis was so angsty with his engineer Riccardo Adami, who I felt was simply trying to pass over relevant and helpful information," Brundle added.

Hamilton's performance in qualifying wasn't very impressive, either, as he was slower than his teammate Charles Leclerc.

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Ferrari aims to improve radio communication with Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said he looks forward to improving radio communication with Lewis Hamilton as he reviewed the strategic decisions made during the race.

The mixed conditions around Albert Park could be put to blame for the decisions that were made during the race. As most drivers continued on slick tires, the rain poured once again, and the Scuderia was late to pit their drivers, hoping to stay out on a drying track. However, that gamble put them at a huge loss.

Moving forward in the season, Vasseur feels the need to improve communication with Hamilton, and hopefully make better decisions.

"It was the first race, the first time that we have to communicate between the pit wall and the car, and we can do a better job and know each other more," Vasseur said. "For sure it was not a clean one at all, the strategy was difficult and we need to find a better way to communicate between the car and the pit wall but we will learn from Race 1 and it is not an issue."

Lewis Hamilton finished the race in P10 with his teammate Charles Leclerc in P8. In all, it was a disastrous day for Ferrari as they scored only five points and are sitting in seventh place in the World Championship.