While Ferrari celebrated its best combined points haul from a non-sprint weekend this season, the mood was far from joyful—especially for Lewis Hamilton, who endured a frustrating race marked by radio miscommunications and a lingering sense of disconnect with his new team.

Hamilton’s weekend was compromised early by a three-place grid penalty for impeding Max Verstappen during Q1, a mistake that Ferrari admitted was due to misinforming him about Verstappen’s approach. This set the tone for a challenging Sunday, as Hamilton found himself “stuck in no man’s land” for much of the race.

The radio exchange

Throughout the race, Hamilton’s radio traffic with race engineer Riccardo Adami was noticeably tense. At one point, Hamilton asked for an update on the gap to the group ahead—Leclerc, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri—but received a vague response about tyre compounds and their battle.

“You’re not answering the question,” Hamilton replied, his frustration evident. When Adami finally clarified the gap (“He’s 48 seconds [ahead]”), the damage was done: Hamilton was left feeling isolated and underinformed.

The most striking moment came after the checkered flag. Adami radioed, “It’s a P5. Lost a lot of time in traffic. The rest we need to investigate. And pick up [spent tyre rubber] please.”

Hamilton responded with a polite but subdued thanks to the team for repairing his car after a Saturday crash, adding, “It’s not been the easiest of weekends, but we live to fight another day.” After a brief silence, Hamilton broke the awkwardness, saying “Are you upset with me or something?” but received no immediate reply.

Ferrari says there is no friction

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur was quick to dismiss any notion of real tension, explaining that the team and Hamilton had agreed not to communicate during certain tricky corners for safety reasons.

“It’s not that we are sleeping, it’s not that we are having a beer on the pitwall, it’s just because we have a section of the track where we agreed before to speak with him,” Vasseur told the media. He insisted that Hamilton was “not upset at all” when they spoke after the race.

Hamilton’s race was further hampered by traffic and strategic decisions. After starting behind Isack Hadjar and Fernando Alonso, he managed to overcut both during the pit stops, but by then had already lost significant time to Leclerc and the leaders.

The traffic was exacerbated by teams like Racing Bulls and Williams deliberately bunching up the field to help their teammates pit without losing time, a tactic that left Hamilton mired in slower traffic and unable to close the gap.

Ultimately, Hamilton finished over 48 seconds behind Leclerc and more than 51 seconds behind race winner Norris. While some of the deficit was due to traffic and strategic ploys by rivals, Hamilton also cited his own lack of familiarity with the Ferrari as a factor in his pace deficit.