Lewis Hamilton performs U-turn after latest race engineer clash

Lewis Hamilton and his race engineer Riccardo Adami clashed over the best strategy route in Austria.

But, having made it clear that he wanted to do a one-stop strategy against Ferrari’s wishes, Hamilton later came to accept that Ferrari most likely got the call right as the team won out in that strategy stand-off.

Ferrari overrule Lewis Hamilton in Austria: Right call?

As the second round of pit-stops arrived in Austria, Hamilton made it clear over Ferrari team radio that he did not want to pit again, calling for a one-stop.

It led to the following exchange between Hamilton and his race engineer Riccardo Adami, apparent tensions at times between the duo a subplot in Hamilton’s slow start to Ferrari life.

Hamilton: My tyres are okay. Can I extend? How many more laps left?

Adami: And box, 20 laps.

Hamilton: I don’t want to stop.

Adami: Box, box.

Hamilton followed the order, pitting and re-emerging P4, the position where he finished, just over nine seconds behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Asked post-race by DAZN F1 whether the one-stop was possible, Hamilton replied: “Yes.”

However, following the race, he was able to see the team’s perspective.

“But in the end I saw that the decision taken was probably the right one,” he confirmed.

F1 2025 head-to-head standings after the Austrian GP

? F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

? F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Hamilton is 11 rounds into his Ferrari career and despite winning the Sprint in China, he is yet to make the podium with his new team, while Leclerc is 28 points up the road in the Drivers’ Championship with four podiums bagged, the latest in Austria.

Hamilton’s latest assessment of how he feels driving the Ferrari SF-25 – upgraded for the Austrian Grand Prix – did not provide much optimism.

“I generally struggle to drive this car in the race,” said Hamilton. “It’s a huge challenge for me. I’m getting used to the balance… but it was difficult for me during the race.

“We’ve improved in qualifying, but I had issues with understeer and oversteer in both low and high speed and couldn’t compensate for it. On a track like this you need stability at high speed and for the car to rotate in the corners. And on top of that the brakes were overheating.

“Still a lot to improve but being P3 and P4 is already a big step forward.”

Be that as it may, Hamilton added: “It’s never a good feeling when you drop back. But yeah, I was pretty much alone after Lap 1.”

A crucial race comes up next for Hamilton in the form of his home event, the British Grand Prix, Hamilton a record nine-time winner at Silverstone.

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