Lewis Hamilton has shown some promise at Ferrari since the summer break, but failed to convert it into a stable result. And Juan Pablo Montoya remains concerned about the dynamic between the seven-time world champion and his team.
Hamilton was quicker than teammate Charles Leclerc at the Dutch GP right up until Q3, when he was pipped to the third row. He then crashed out of the race the next day and picked up a five-place penalty for Monza due to a pre-race yellow flag infringement.
While he qualified fifth at Ferrari’s home Grand Prix, he was only able to fight back to P6 on the Sunday. Hamilton had been fastest in one of the Friday practice sessions in Italy, a feat he repeated in Azerbaijan.
But a messy Q2, in which he complained about the balance of the car and Ferrari’s tyre choice, left him 12th on the grid when he felt pole was possible. And from there, eighth place was all that was possible.
Juan Pablo Montoya says Lewis Hamilton was made to feel like a school child over Ferrari radio
Hamilton was critical of Ferrari’s execution after Baku qualifying. He wanted to use medium tyres, like teammate Charles Leclerc, but ended up lapping on worn softs.
Complaining about overheating his rears, Hamilton asked Ferrari for help over the radio. F1 icon Juan Pablo Montoya says he was made to feel like a school child who wasn’t ‘paying attention’.
“This was the answer [silence], like when you ask a question to your teacher at school and you weren’t paying attention, and you look around at everyone to see what they say,” Montoya remarked on the AS Colombia YouTube channel.
“This is how it looked, this is how it felt from the outside. I saw the video the other day and I said, ‘Oh my god’.”
Hamilton’s relationship with Riccardo Adami has been under scrutiny ever since his debut in Australia, when he was unhappy with the supply of information. He also sarcastically mocked the indecision from the pit wall as they debated swapping their cars at the Miami GP.
Juan Pablo Montoya says Lewis Hamilton is missing his Mercedes engineer
Adami has previously worked with an F1 legend in Sebastian Vettel and also a multiple race-winner in Carlos Sainz. But outwardly, it appears he’s found it more difficult to gel with Hamilton.
The British driver spent 12 seasons at Mercedes working alongside Peter Bonnington, and their partnership will go down as one of the greatest in F1 history. Mercedes tied Bonnington down to a new deal last year, precluding any possibility he’d follow Hamilton to Maranello.
Montoya thinks Hamilton would have received more help from his old colleague, and questioned whether Ferrari are really doing everything in their power to help Hamilton.
He said: “The conversation would be a little different [with Bonnington], because he’s saying, ‘What do we do? What can I try, because what we have right now doesn’t work. Give me some ideas’.
“The only thing the engineer told him is that the problem is that he was releasing the brakes incorrectly. The problem isn’t the brake release, the problem is that the brake release is set for one, not the other.
“So why don’t they look at how Lewis handles it and adjust the system so it works for Lewis too?”
Hamilton has only seven races remaining to avoid the first podium-less season of his Formula 1 career.