Ferrari boss told to “calm down” by Hamilton – The spotlight this season at Ferrari is well and truly on Lewis Hamilton who made the shock move to Maranello, leaving his Mercedes family after twelve years. Reflecting on the move must be bitter sweet for the seven times Formula One champion, given the significant improvement Mercedes are showing this season and that his rookie replacement has already racked up a Sprint pole position.
Hamilton is taking some of the heat away from the Ferrari team, whose decision to build a brand new car for 2025 is now looking questionable. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz hunted down McLaren across the final six races in 2024, reducing the deficit from 75 points to just 14 come the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.
Yet on the whole Ferrari has avoided a whole lot of criticism from the Italian media and the F1 paddock as the focus on when Hamilton will overcome his woes with the SF-25 remains the tale that is top of the bill.
Hamilton shielding attacks on Ferrari
Ferrari’s hopes of winning anything this year are all but gone after just 25% of the season is complete. They trail McLaren by 152 points and leading driver Charles Leclerc is 78 points behind table topper Oscar Piastri, with Lewis Hamilton a further 12 points behind. Yet the tale of the tape which shows Ferrari are in a shocking place is not being told as the team is shielded from a fuller scrutiny due to the failed expectations of Lewis Hamilton.
Again for Ferrari it was Lewis who was the talk of Miami. First up his drive to the podium in the Sprint from P7 to P3 was heralded as signs Hamilton was getting back to his best, given it was Lewis who called for the slick tyres whilst the circuit was still wet in a number of places.
When told over team radio he wold be receiving the medium tyre, Hamilton rejected the call insisting the soft tyre was the right decision, something he went on to prove to be right as he blazed around the outside of the struggling Max Verstappen. Come the Grand Prix, with Hamilton starting in a lowly twelfth position the decision was to split the tyre strategy with him on the harder and slower compound, whilst Leclerc set off along with most of the rest of the field on the medium tyre.
Hamilton struggled to get his tyres up to temperature and it was lap five before he managed to squeeze past the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar. He spent the next 16 laps toiling away in P11 behind Esteban Ocon before the Haas F1 driver pitted for fresh rubber releasing Lewis into clean air.
Inordinate delays in Ferrari strategy
On the softer compound Leclerc pitted earlier than his team mate for the hard tyre to run to the end, but then a Virtual Safety Car gave Hamilton a jump on most of the field as he changed rubber while the rest trundled around at 40% of racing speed, coming out just a few seconds behind Leclerc on track.
On the faster tyre Hamilton quickly closed the gap to his team mate over two laps then he asked the team whether he was to just hold station fore the rest of the race to which R
Riccardo Adami his race engineer responded in usual Ferrari dithering fashion, “I’ll get back to you.”
Some two laps and over three minutes later, Hamilton asked whether the team had made a decision only to receive the reply to hold station and “keep the DRS to Charles.” A clearly frustrated Hamilton responded: “Man, you guys,” before adding “In China, I got out of the way.”
As the debate amongst the Ferrari strategy team continued, Hamilton quipped: “Have a tea break while you’re at it! Come on…” During this entire period which lasted some four laps Leclerc was not consulted once before being finally told on Lap 38 to “swap the cars” something the Monegasque driver complied with immediately without comment.
Old McLaren ‘cheating’ tactic raises its head
Hamilton sarcasm
Yet Hamilton as he’d predicted had burnt through the best of his fresh rubber following his team mate for several laps and when the switch was made he was unable to pull away from his team mate whose hard tyres were now up to temperature. Lewis toiled away for fourteen laps before two from the end being told to switch places back with his team mate.
Lewis was given information on the car immediately behind which was Alex Albon, to which he sarcastically replied “Do you want me to let him pass as well?” Clearly the post race debrief at Ferrari was going to be a heated affair, with Leclerc also expressing dissatisfaction with the time the team took to make the various decisions.
In the end Leclerc and Hamilton finished a disappointing seventh and eighth, and the team failed in its mission to get either driver to catch Antonelli who was just a couple of seconds further up the road. Fire and brimstone looked set to fall in the Ferrari hospitality.
Vasseur clearly irate
Yet surprisingly in the media pen, Lewis was decidedly upbeat. It was almost as if the farcical decision making from Ferrari was laughable, in particular given they were fighting for the lower regions of the top ten. F1 veteran journalists Adam Cooper confirmed this state of affairs when posting on X: “Lewis Hamilton was in an upbeat and chatty mood when we talked to him, said he enjoyed the race, and especially the pace on mediums.”
“Fred Vasseur diffused any team order tension by going straight to him after the flag and putting an arm round his shoulders.” Yet it appears it was Hamilton who had to calm down his team boss as he revealed: “Fred (Vasseur, Ferrari team boss) came to my room. I just put my hand on his shoulder and said, ‘dude, calm down. Don’t be so sensitive.’
“I could have said way worse things on the radio. You hear some of the things other people have said in the past. Some of it was sarcasm,” Hamilton concluded.
Clearly Fred Vasseur was not happy when he entered Lewis ready room given Hamilton’s comments that he told him to calm down. Whether Vasseur’s ire was over the radio messages from Hamilton or the failure of the team to make quick decisions is unclear at the moment, but it would be dangerous for Hamilton’s future were his boss to be furious at the negative attention he was bringing to the team in front of 70 odd million viewers.
Trump persuaded against F1 in M Miami
MORE F1 NEWS – Doohan axed as Colapinto steps in for Imola
Storm clouds over the Alps: Jack Doohan axed as Franco Colapinto steps in for Imola – A turbulent start to the 2025 Formula One season has culminated in a swift and dramatic change at the Alpine garage. According to multiple sources, including Germany’s often reliable RTL TV network, the French team are preparing to bench Jack Doohan ahead of the upcoming Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, with Franco Colapinto reportedly set to take the second seat.
While official confirmation is yet to come, insiders suggest that the decision has already been made following another disappointing outing for Doohan in Miami. The Australian’s early crash on the opening lap appears to have been the final straw for Flavio Briatore’s Alpine bosses.
This sudden driver change – still unofficial but widely expected – marks one of the most abrupt mid-season changes in recent memory, and signals the end of a rapidly deteriorating relationship between Doohan and the Alpine Formula One project… READ MORE ON THIS STORY
The Judge, a nom de plume of an experienced F1 journalist and site founder with long-standing sources across the paddock. With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
