Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur have held talks to restore harmony within the team following the seven-time world champion’s furious tirade on the team radio during the Miami Grand Prix.
The 40-year-old has endured a tough start to life in red, and on Sunday, he turned on the sarcasm after disagreeing with the Scuderia’s race strategy.
Hamilton started the race in 12th after a dismal qualifying session on Saturday, and was forced to work his way up the field before catching up to team-mate Charles Leclerc, who was in seventh.
This was when the problems began as the Briton believed his team were too slow to react to his request to overtake the Monagasque driver.
Thus began a number of snide comments from Hamilton as the laps went by, as he protested: ‘This is not good teamwork. That’s all I’m going to say.’ The swap was eventually commissioned, but after failing to make headway, Hamilton was forced to switch back with Leclerc before finishing eighth.
After refusing to apologise for the exchanges following the race, the former Mercedes man had a meeting with new boss Vasseur to clear the air, in which the Frenchman defended his colleague’s strategy calls.
Lewis Hamilton and boss Fred Vasseur cleared the air after Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix
Hamilton was unhappy with Ferrari’s indecision over his pleas to overtake team-mate Charles Leclerc
The seven-time world champion made several sarcastic comments on the radio during the race
‘I had a discussion with Lewis, and I can perfectly understand the frustration,’ Vasseur said. ‘They are champions, they want to win races. We are asking them to let their team-mate go. It’s not easy.
‘It’s never easy, and I didn’t see another team do it today, but it’s why we took the responsibility to do it because it’s the policy for the team. We are racing for Ferrari first, and honestly, I think as a team, we did a good job.
‘Again, we can argue that it would have been better to do it the lap before, but when you are in control and you have to understand if the car that’s behind is faster than the car in front just from DRS or not, it’s not an easy call.
‘It’s always much easier to do it two hours later. We asked them to do it, they did it. The frustration when you are in the car, I can perfectly understand this. It’s not the story of the day. We’d be much more keen to speak about [why] we finished one minute beyond McLaren.’
Hamilton did not hold back in showing his frustration with Ferrari’s lack of urgency once he approached Leclerc.
The Formula One legend stated: ‘You want me to just sit here the whole race?’ with the engineer replying ‘I’ll come back to you’.
He then added: ‘In China I got out of the way when you were on a different strategy’, before saying ‘Ah! Have a tea break while you’re at it! Come on.’
After being informed that Carlos Sainz was 1.4 seconds behind him, Hamilton sarcastically stated: ‘You want me to let him past as well?’.
Hamilton did not apoligise for the exchanges after the grand prix, saying ‘It was all PG at least – right?’
Hamilton has struggled adapting to life at Ferrari and is yet to podium for the Scuderia
Following the race, Hamilton, who let Leclerc past in China earlier in the season, seemed in much higher spirits as he turned up for his press duties, where he was instantly asked about the exchanges.
‘It was all PG at least – right?’ he said. ‘I don’t know what you’re going to write, whether I was disrespectful or whatever. I honestly don’t feel I was. I was just like, “Come on guys, I want to win.” I’ve still got that fire in my belly.
‘I could feel a little bit of it really coming out there. And I’m not going to apologise for being a fighter. I’m not going to apologise for still wanting it. And I know everyone in the team does, too.
‘It wasn’t even anger. It was just… you’re sitting there in the chair, you’ve got the stuff in front of you, just make the decision quickly. That’s what I was feeling. I was in a panic, trying to keep the car on the track.’
Hamilton’s move over to the Scuderia has not gone to plan thus far, with the seven-time champion yet to podium six races into the 2025 season.
The Briton’s highest finish this campaign was a fifth place in Bahrain, however, he did win the first sprint race of the calendar in China.
The eighth-place finish in Miami was yet another sign that Ferrari will struggle to compete with the likes of McLaren and Mercedes, and Hamilton acknowledged that his team is ‘not where we want to be’.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the race, he said: ‘I always knew it was going to be difficult today, starting from 12th. We’re not where we want to be.
Lewis Hamilton was among the early British arrivals for the 2025 Met Gala on Monday
The Formula One star put on a dapper display in a sharp white double-breasted suit and a matching beret as he joined co-chair Colman Domingo (left) on the blue carpet
‘We’re lacking a lot of pace, we’ve lost some performance over the past races. We know where it is, and we’re just waiting for a fix to regain some of it.
‘For us to be at the back of the top ten is definitely not easy for the whole team. Once I got onto the medium tyre, I was feeling really optimistic. The car was really coming alive, and I was really thinking I had the potential to catch the guys. I was hoping we had a safety car, but that never came.’
Hamilton didn’t take long to get the race out of his mind, though; he rocked up to the 2025 Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Benefit Gala on Monday, after acting as one of the co-chairs of this year’s event.
He put on a dapper display in a sharp white double-breasted suit and a matching beret as he posed up a storm on the blue carpet, which celebrated the launch of the museum’s annual spring exhibit.