MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Lewis Hamilton arrived at the Miami Grand Prix feeling disheartened by his underwhelming start to the Formula 1 season while racing for Ferrari. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much improvement to his performance at this event. During Sunday’s race, Hamilton was given a directive by Ferrari to yield his seventh-place position to teammate Charles Leclerc, resulting in an eighth-place finish—his poorest performance since a disqualification earlier in the season. Nonetheless, the seven-time F1 champion remained optimistic post-race.
“I generally enjoyed the race,” Hamilton reflected. “Even though we didn’t have the speed we wanted, I felt like the overall weekend was better for me. The results don’t show it, but going from 12th to seventh was a positive aspect.” At one point, equipped with medium tires, Hamilton even felt a surge in performance, thinking to himself, “the car really came alive, and I felt super optimistic in that moment.”
Regardless, Ferrari was no match for McLaren Racing, whose drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris secured the top two spots on the podium. “This wasn’t a good weekend for us, we can’t be satisfied with finishing P7 and P8,” expressed Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur. “Starting from P8 and P12 makes it incredibly hard to claw back and challenge the leading cars. Moreover, McLaren seemed to be on another level. We had enough speed to compete with Red Bull and Mercedes, but McLaren remained out of reach.”
Thus far in the season, Piastri has claimed four victories, three consecutively, and Norris has one win, giving McLaren five wins out of the first six races. Meanwhile, four-time defending F1 champion Max Verstappen has managed to win only once, and Ferrari, with Hamilton and Leclerc at the helm, has yet to pose a substantial threat. Ferrari’s struggles in Miami were exacerbated by a crash during Saturday’s session when Leclerc lost control of his vehicle on the way to the track for the sprint race. Consequently, he missed the sprint event, and Ferrari scrambled to prepare him for qualifying.
Hamilton ended up in third place in the sprint race; however, he failed to translate that success into a strong qualifying performance. His major grievance after the main race wasn’t about the team orders to let Leclerc pass but the slow communication from Ferrari regarding the strategy. It appeared Leclerc was informed before Hamilton, leading to a failed first attempt by Leclerc to overtake. Once Hamilton was made aware, he allowed Leclerc through on the following lap.
“This is not good teamwork. That’s all I’m going to say,” Hamilton stated over the Ferrari radio comms. Afterward, Hamilton mentioned feeling quite fast when the order was made, “I was clearly quick at that moment, and the decision wasn’t communicated soon enough,” he remarked. “Naturally, you’re inclined to say, ‘Come on.’ I have no issues with the team or Charles. We can improve, but we really need to work on the car.”
Leclerc acknowledged the tension within Ferrari’s Miami race could stir quite an F1 controversy but stated that the core issue lies with the car’s performance. “We need to do better, that’s certain. Today was far from ideal, nowhere near our potential,” he commented. “We need to come together as a team and improve.”
He admitted feeling a parallel frustration with Hamilton concerning Ferrari’s season performance. To date, his highest finish was third in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last month. “It’s frustrating to battle for P8 without progress,” Leclerc shared. “Struggling with the car adds to it and brings more frustration.”