Former Red Bull F1 driver Robert Doornbos believes that a perceived ‘lack of chemistry’ between Lewis Hamilton and race engineer Riccardo Adami could cost the Brit podiums, race victories, and even a World Championship with Ferrari.
During his 12-year stay with Mercedes, Hamilton built a legendary partnership with race engineer Peter Bonnington; however, when he swapped the Silver Arrows for his new home in Maranello, he was forced to turn over a new page.
Hamilton paired up with Adami, who was formerly the race engineer for Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz, in the Ferrari garage, but the partnership got off to a rocky start. There were teething problems with communication during the opening few weekends of the season as the duo adapted to their new environment.
According to Doornbos, who drove for Minardi and Red Bull during his F1 career, there is still work to be done between driver and engineer. “I think because there is just no chemistry between the engineer and the driver, the communication between Lewis and Ricky [Adami], his engineer, it just doesn’t feel like they’re switched on to each other,” he told The Pit Talk Podcast.
Doornbos then honed in on the penalty incident. Hamilton was handed a 10-second penalty for failing to utilise the escape road correctly after going off-track during his intense opening-lap battle with Max Verstappen.
“It’s Ricky saying, ‘We’ve got a 10-second [penalty] because of this and this situation.’ Lewis said, ‘Yeah, but it was very difficult to stay on,’ he continued. “We know Lewis. I don’t think they’re really on it. If you want to be fighting for wins, championships, and podiums, you have to take every opportunity you can to maximise it.”
While there has been speculation about Hamilton’s relationship with Adami throughout the 40-year-old’s maiden campaign with Ferrari, the seven-time world champion has batted away any questions regarding the matter.
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“Our relationship is great,” he explained at the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this year. “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.”
Hamilton continued: “There’s a lot of speculation. I mean, most of it’s BS. Ultimately, we have a great relationship. 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.”