Racing Icon Exposes Lewis Hamilton’s Logic Behind Ferrari Radio Outburst

Juan Pablo Montoya believes that Lewis Hamilton's outburst on team radio at the Miami GP was necessary for Ferrari to start mending their ways.

Racing Icon Exposes Lewis Hamilton’s Logic Behind Ferrari Radio Outburst

Lewis Hamilton (via Planetf1)

Lewis Hamilton‘s start to his debut year with Ferrari has been nothing short of a disappointment. Hamilton suffers from a streak of woeful performances as he fails to bridge the gap to the rivals at the forefront. To make matters worse, the Briton has been involved in a heated argument with his race engineer Ricciardo Adami on multiple occasions. Now, the ex-F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya has shared his thoughts on the 40-year-old’s public outburst, especially the most recent one at the Miami GP.

Lewis Hamilton started the race on Hard compounds as compared to his teammate Charles Leclerc running Mediums. Midway through the race, Hamilton pitted for the medium compound tire as opposed to Leclerc’s hard tires, which are significantly slower. However, a botched strategy call from Ferrari meant that the Briton trailed his teammate on track and burnt a lot of unnecessary rubber. Due to this, the 40-year-old burst out on the team radio and put forth multiple heated remarks to Ricciardo Adami.

Although Hamilton sorted the matter and came clean to the team, people still turned a sour eye towards the matter. Upon this, Juan Pablo Montoya believes that the Briton simply wanted the team to listen to him. The 40-year-old wanted Ferrari to do the most logical thing, and that was to let him pass. Even Montoya acknowledges that the Italian constructor has not remained exceptional in their strategies in recent years, as the Miami GP incident was a great example.

Hamilton simply wanted the team to listen to him, to do the most logical thing. At a strategic level, Ferrari has had a good performance in recent years, but not exceptional. You can’t put Hamilton on softer tires and keep him behind Leclerc, it’s a dynamic that destroyed Lewis’ tires.

Juan Pablo Montoya said, as reported by formulapassion

Still, Ferrari decided to accept Lewis Hamilton’s wish and let him pass Leclerc, only for him to not be able to fight for a better position by the end. The team then again decided to let the Monegasque pass and asked Hamilton to cede position. Juan Pablo Montoya reckoned that it was too late by then to let the 40-year-old pass as he had burnt a lot of his tire. Montoya highlighted that there was nothing left to ‘squeeze’ for the seven-time champion as he ultimately ended in the same place in the pecking order.

When they let it go through there was nothing left to squeeze.

Juan Pablo Montoya added

Lewis Hamilton wants to ‘establish a principle’ at Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton believed that the decision to swap positions came in too late and ended up sabotaging his race pace. While Ferrari needed to make an immediate decision to switch the drivers, they only did so three laps later, when it was already too late. As such, the 40-year-old’s frustrations on the team radio signified that the team required better principles and quicker decision-making.

Fred Vasseur, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc (via Motorsport Week)
Fred Vasseur, Lewis Hamilton, and Charles Leclerc (via Motorsport Week)

Juan Pablo Montoya explained that Hamilton said what he said on the team radio to establish a principle within the team. The comments signified that Maranello needed to be faster in decision-making and maximize contingent situations. Even the 49-year-old believed that the team needed to make the switch immediately, and not worry about which driver to prioritize over another. The Italian constructor should rather focus on maximizing points, which would’ve been possible had they let the 40-year-old through earlier.

hat Hamilton said on the radio to his track engineer was to establish a principle, be faster in decisions and maximize contingent situations. Leclerc and Hamilton should have exchanged positions immediately. It is not about determining whether and which driver to give priority, but to making the right decision to maximize the points.

Juan Pablo Montoya noted

Ferrari must ensure that there are no gaps in their strategy that will allow the rivals to capitalize on. The team is already lacking in terms of pace from the forefront. As such, the Italian constructor now needs much better decisions on track and to allow both drivers to fight each other freely. Hamilton is ready to rebuild himself at Maranello only if the team allows him to do so and helps him in this journey.

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