Martin Brundle was less than impressed with Lewis Hamilton's conduct via team radio on his debut for Ferrari at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. The seven-time F1 drivers' champion endured an underwhelming first weekend with the Italian team, which Brundle called "disappointing... by any metric." As soon as the round in Melbourne kicked into high gear, Ferrari lost any semblance of pace it had show in practice - although that had primarily been at the hands of Hamilton's team-mate Charles Leclerc. After locking out the fourth row of the Albert Park grid, the pair suffered through poor performance from the SF-25 and poor strategy calls from the pit wall in tricky, changeable conditions. The British driver's afternoon was capped off by Oscar Piastri planting his McLaren around the outside of him at Turn 9 on the final lap, losing a point in the process. "Lewis Hamilton had a disappointing start to his Ferrari career by any metric," Brundle wrote in his Sky Sports F1 column. "Eighth on the grid behind his team-mate Leclerc, losing out a little in the first corner and following Alex Albon's Williams for what seemed like an age, and then being passed around the outside of the fast turn nine by a spectacularly recovering Piastri on the final lap - consigning Lewis to one point in 10th place - was not where he should be."
Brundle defends Hamilton's new race engineer
Perhaps more damning, the F1 driver-turned-commentator was left questioning the tone and tenor of Hamilton's interactions with his new team throughout the grand prix. A range of messages between the 40-year-old and his new race engineer, Riccardo Adami, were broadcast. In addition to some miscommunications from the pair, the British driver sounded exasperated and frustrated at times. "I don't understand why Lewis was so angsty with his engineer Riccardo Adami, who I felt was simply trying to pass over relevant and helpful information," Brundle said. The most egregious error, however, came from Ferrari when the late-race wet weather hit. It was a result-defining mistake to leave both Hamilton and Leclerc out on an increasingly rain-soaked circuit, despite rivals pitting for intermediate tyres. "It all really fell apart for Ferrari when they rolled the dice on dry tyres on a wet track and lost out heavily on track position for both drivers, and they left Australia seventh in the championship," the 65-year-old concluded.
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