Lewis Hamilton’s brutal Ferrari outburst at Miami GP makes F1 world squirm

Lewis Hamilton’s shocking start at Ferrari has continued and he gave his team a piece of his mind in some seriously savage messages.

Lewis Hamilton’s strained relationship with Ferrari has been laid bare in some brutal team radio messages at the Miami Grand Prix that make for tough listening.

Oscar Piastri won in Miami to extend his championship lead, but Hamilton’s honeymoon phase with Ferrari is well and truly over and the Brit was left fuming over his new team’s strategy as he finished eighth.

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The seven-time world champion was on a different tyre strategy to teammate Charles Leclerc, resulting in some tense radio exchanges, which you can listen to in the video above.

Hamilton hasn’t had the best start with his race engineer Riccardo Adami and he wasn’t happy with when Adami was speaking to him during crucial parts of the race.

Hamilton fumed early in the race: “Stop talking to me while I’m freaking battle, man! Geesh! In the braking zone you’re talking to me!”

The 40-year-old blew up later in the race when he caught up to Leclerc on fresh medium tyres but was made to wait three laps to swap spots with his teammate.

Hamilton: “In China, I go out of the way when you’re on a different road.”

Engineer: “Understood, we swap the cars.”

Hamilton: “Have a tea break while you’re at it. Come on.”

Lewis Hamilton was not happy with Ferrari in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Leclerc then caught up to Hamilton and the teammates swapped places again as Ferrari struggled with putting both their drivers in dirty air as they battled to reel in Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.

Carlos Sainz closed in hard on Hamilton in the dying stages of the race and he didn’t like being told Sainz’s Williams was catching up.

Hamilton’s engineer told him “Sainz is 1.4 behind” to which Hamilton fired back “You want me to let him past as well?”

Sainz made a late lunge on Hamilton in the final lap but the Ferrari held on to finish eighth, a full minute behind race winner Piastri.

Hamilton 'have a tea break while you're at it' to Ferrari is hilarious

— Matt Gallagher (@MattP1Gallagher) May 4, 2025

Ferrari garage at the moment. #ferrarif1#skysportsf1#SkyF1#MiamiGP#LewisHamiltonpic.twitter.com/fUd4ZUnBAQ

— Jon Large (@therealjonlarge) May 4, 2025

📻 Hamilton: "In China, I got out of the way."
📻 Adami: "Understood, we swapped the cars."
📻 Hamilton: "Have a tea break while you're at it!"#F1#MiamiGP

— Luke Smith (@LukeSmithF1) May 4, 2025

Ferrari were only 14 points away from winning the constructors’ championship last year but they have changed their car this year and are fourth in this year’s standings behind McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull.

“We’re not where we want to be. We’re clearly lacking a lot of pace,” Hamilton said post-race.

“To be at the back of the top 10 is definitely not easy for the whole team.

“I lost a lot of time behind Charles and in that moment, for sure I was like, ‘Come on, let’s make a decision and not waste time.

“I’m sure people didn’t like some comments, but you’ve got to understand it’s frustrating.

“People say way worse things than I say, so it was more sarcastic than anything. I’m not frustrated now, we will work internally.

“They don’t want to upset one driver or the other … I know if it means if the team can get further ahead, I want that. That’s why I decided to let Charles pass in China for example.

“But today I was on a different strategy, on a much quicker tyre at the time, Charles was clearly struggling then and it look a long time to see it and by then it was too late.”

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton console each other. Photo: X.

Hamilton and Leclerc consoled each other with a pat on the back in the paddock after the race as attention turned to Ferrari’s much maligned race strategy.

F1 world champion Jenson Button said on Sky Sports: “The problem is Lewis spends one lap behind his teammate, just one lap and it damages his tyres.

“Yes, I can see the frustration. This should have been a plan before the race. If the guy behind is on softer tyres, you let them past.

“He shouldn’t have even had to ask, to be fair.”

Sky Sports host Simon Lazenby: “So often Ferrari (say) ‘We’ll come back to you’. There’s not really time to come back to you in a Formula One race is there. You could just sense he was getting more and more annoyed.”

Danica Patrick: “Ferrari has definitely been much worse at strategy than most of these top teams. You can’t afford to make your drivers really angry, you need them to stay really positive.”

Tied with Michael Schumacher on seven world championships, it’s looking increasingly unlikely Hamilton will win a recordbreaking eighth title at Ferrari before he retires.

Hamilton and Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur were spotted in deep discussion pre-race in the Ferrari hospitality area.

Leclerc cut a forlorn figure as he chose his words carefully when speaking about Ferrari’s strategy post-race.

“It’s a difficult situation,” Leclerc told Sky Sports.
“I will go for the boring answer and I’m not going to comment too much. It’s obvious today was not the way we want to manage a race.

“We will discuss internally in order to make better decisions. There’s no bad feelings for Lewis, absolutely not. It’s just as a team, we need to do better. Today was proof of that.

“For the rest, I don’t want to speak into details. I’m doing my best. I’m giving everything I have for us to be a better team, for us to have a better car.”

Lewis Hamilton speaks to Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur before the Miami Grand Prix. Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP)

Team principal Vasseur defended the team’s handling of the Hamilton-Leclerc swaps during the race.

“I think it was the right call, Lewis had a softer compound compared to Leclerc to try and get Antonelli, then we swapped again when he couldn’t. It’s never easy to ask that to drivers but in the end, the drivers listened to the orders.

“At the end it was well executed because Lewis was behind Charles, he was with a softer compound, we let him go and we swapped back at the end “I think we did a good job.

“I think McLaren was on another planet today, I think our pace was comparable with Red Bull and Mercedes.”