Lewis Hamilton made his frustrations clear during the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, taking veiled digs at Ferrari’s race strategy as the team endured another disappointing weekend.
Hamilton finished eighth, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc in seventh, leaving Ferrari with only one podium finish this season—Leclerc’s third place in Jeddah.
Tensions flared over the team radio when Hamilton, seemingly faster at that point in the race, requested to pass Leclerc in pursuit of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli. “I’m just burning up my tyres behind him. You want me to just sit here the whole race?” he said, clearly irritated.
Three laps later, Ferrari gave him the green light to overtake, but Hamilton remained unimpressed. “This is not good teamwork, that’s all I’m going to say… In China I got out of the way,” he said, referencing a previous instance where he had moved aside to help the team.
Criticising Ferrari’s slow decision-making, Hamilton sarcastically remarked, “Have a tea break while you’re at it, come on!” However, after being let through, Hamilton struggled to make headway, and when Leclerc later appeared faster, the team reversed their positions again.
When warned that ex-Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz—now racing for Williams—was closing in, Hamilton, dripping with sarcasm, asked: “You want me to let him past as well?”
After the race, Hamilton explained that while he wasn’t angry, the team had to make swifter and more coherent choices. “I lost a lot of time behind Charles and in that moment, I was thinking, ‘Let’s make a decision and not waste time’. It was more sarcastic than angry. People say worse things in the heat of the moment,” he said.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur acknowledged the tension but stood by the team’s handling of the situation: “I understand the frustration, but in the end, the execution was solid.”
Leclerc took a diplomatic stance, admitting the team hadn’t performed at the level expected. “This isn’t how we want to manage a race,” he said. “We’ll have discussions internally. There are no hard feelings toward Lewis. As a team, we simply need to do better.”
