Lewis Hamilton has played down any suggestions of tension between himself and his race engineer Riccardo Adami, with the Ferrari driver stating that the speculation is “just noise” which “doesn’t make any difference to the job that we’re trying to do”.
During the Miami Grand Prix in May, Hamilton was heard to voice his frustration as the team decided whether to order a swap between him and team mate Charles Leclerc up ahead, leading to the seven-time World Champion sarcastically commenting: “Have a tea break while you’re at it.”
His relationship with Adami came under further scrutiny a few weeks later in Monaco, where Hamilton asked, “Are you upset with me or something?” over the radio during the latter stages, to which he seemingly received no response.
When quizzed during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend – his ninth event as a Ferrari driver – on how he is getting on with Adami, Hamilton insisted that there are no issues.
“Our relationship is great,” he explained. “No problems. We’re constantly learning more and more about each other, we’re constantly adapting to the way both of us like to work.
“He’s worked with lots of different drivers before. We don’t have any problems at all.”
The Briton was then pushed on whether the speculation upset him, to which he responded: “There’s a lot of speculation. I mean, most of it’s BS. Ultimately, we have a great relationship.
Hamilton says that he and race engineer Adami are “constantly adapting to the way both of us like to work”
“He’s been amazing to work with, he’s a great guy, working so hard – we both are – and we don’t always get it right every weekend. We have disagreements, like everyone does in relationships, but we work through them.
“We’re both in it together, we both want to win a championship together, we’re both working towards lifting the team up.
“So it’s just all noise, and we don’t really pay any attention to it. So it can continue if you want, but it doesn’t make any difference to the job that we’re trying to do.”
In reference to that message in Monte Carlo, Hamilton added: “It was literally just there [were] areas that were… we just had radio problems through the race, [and I] didn’t get all the information that I wanted.”