Lewis Hamilton brands speculation of Ferrari rift as ‘BS’

Lewis Hamilton has dismissed claims he is at odds with Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami, insisting that he is “amazing to work with”.

Hamilton and Adami were involved in a number of fractious radio exchanges during last Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion finished fifth in Monte Carlo, 51 seconds behind winner Lando Norris and 48 seconds adrift of Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc who took second.

After he crossed the line, Hamilton asked Adami: “Are you upset with me or something?” Hamilton did not appear to receive an answer from the Italian.

Addressing the post-race message ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton replied: “It was literally just there were areas where we had radio problems through the race, and I did not get the information that I wanted. We spoke afterwards.

“There is a lot of speculation and most of it is BS. We have a great relationship. He is amazing to work with. He is a great guy. He is working so hard, we both are.”

Hamilton won six of his record-equalling seven world titles with Peter “Bono” Bonnington at his side with Mercedes. However, Bonnington could not be persuaded to join Hamilton at Ferrari.

In their first race together, Hamilton pleaded with Adami to “leave me to it” in the rain in Australia, and then accused his team of having “a tea break” as they deliberated whether to move Leclerc out of his way at the Miami Grand Prix last month.

Adami worked with Sebastian Vettel, first at Toro Rosso, before he followed the four-time world champion to Ferrari. Adami was Carlos Sainz’s race engineer before Hamilton replaced the Spaniard at Ferrari.

Hamilton continued: “We don’t always get it right every weekend. Do we have disagreements? Yes, like everyone does in relationships. But we work through them. We are both in it together. We both want to win a world championship together and we are both working towards lifting the team up.

“So it is just all noise and we are not paying attention to it. It doesn’t make a difference to the job we are trying to do.

“Our relationship is great. And there are no problems. We are constantly learning more and more about each other and adapting the way we want to work. He has worked with lots of different drivers before. But we don’t have any problems whatsoever. ”

Hamilton heads into the ninth round of his Ferrari career 98 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri. Hamilton won a sprint race at the second round in China but has failed to finish on the podium since completing his blockbuster move from Mercedes to Ferrari.