Ferrari make Hamilton communication vow after debut 'mistakes'

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has reassured Lewis Hamilton that immediate improvements in communication will be made following "mistakes" which occurred during the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton and race engineer Riccardo Adami could not have asked for a more difficult race to start their relationship following the seven-time F1 champion's move to the Scuderia.

Hamilton had already stated that switching to a completely different car and learning the procedures involved in its running and its various idiosyncrasies compared to his many years in driving a Mercedes was proving tricky to master, particularly with very little running in the build-up to the race at Melbourne's Albert Park.

Throw in the added complexity of handling a wet race in which their six crashes further tested the limits of communication between Hamilton, who finished 10th, and Adami, as there were often fraught exchanges between the two.

Vasseur knows the situation has to improve ahead of the second race of the season this weekend in China.

"It's the first race, the first time we have to communicate between the pit wall and the car," said Vasseur, speaking to media, including RacingNews365. "But we can do a better job, to know each other a bit better.

"For sure, it was not a clean one at all, but the strategy was difficult. Probably we need to find a better way to communicate between the car and the pit wall. We will learn from this one but it's not an issue."

Weekend was extreme for Hamilton

The early signs are that Hamilton's adaptation process will likely take longer than anticipated. The 40-year-old suggested as much after Friday practice.

In response, a sceptical Vasseur said: "I don't think so.

"The weekend was quite extreme for different reasons, the fact that it [Albert Park] is not a permanent track, the fact the group is changing a lot, and the fact that we had these conditions. I think it's probably been one of the most difficult weekends to manage.

"For sure, it was not quite a shock, but it was not a great weekend for us. But let me focus on next week [China], that we'll have to learn a lot from this weekend because we made mistakes.

"That means we need to improve the communication and to understand what Lewis is expecting from that communication. It's only in these kinds of situations that we can learn and be much better next week."

One of the particular areas of communication arose when heavy rain hit the track late on. Whereas other drivers pitted quickly for intermediates, Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc were told to stay out.

In contrast, whilst Leclerc was told class three [heavy] rain was going to strike, Hamilton voiced in a radio message to Adami that whatever information he had received was the opposite. "You said it wasn't going to rain much," he said. "Missed a big opportunity there."

Explaining what unfolded and why the call to remain on track was made, Vasseur has conceded to further errors.

"It was a strange situation because sectors one and two were still dry and sector three was completely wet and it was a kind of a bet I think that Red Bull and us, we bet on the fact that we have to stay on track and to wait for the last part of the race with slicks," said Vasseur.

“When Mercedes and McLaren...but McLaren...they pitted two laps before. We made the wrong call because I think the best option was to pit the same lap as Max and we made the wrong call at this stage."