F1 legend claims Lewis Hamilton must get angry and AXE key Ferrari figure

Lewis Hamilton

F1 legend claims Hamilton must get angry and AXE key Ferrari figure

Lewis Hamilton has a persistent problem at Ferrari

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Wednesday 4 June 2025 12:56

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Formula 1 legend Juan Pablo Montoya has called for more anger from Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, and has told him to axe a key figure from his team.

Hamilton’s career with Ferrari has not got off to the best of starts over the course of 2025, with the seven-time world champion unable to extract pace from the SF-25 whilst his team-mate Charles Leclerc has earned three podiums.

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Furthermore, Hamilton’s tense team radio messages with race engineer Riccardo Adami signal all is not well at Ferrari, and marks a strong contrast to those with Peter Bonnington at Mercedes.

Speaking to AS Colombia, Montoya has called for Hamilton to change his race engineer to help improve his position at Ferrari, and has criticised Adami in his exchanges with the 40-year-old.

"At some point, Lewis is going to have to get angry and suddenly ask for a change of engineers or something," Montoya said.

"Because if he makes a change of engineers, it would be good for the people around him to say: ‘Do I work with Lewis or will he take me out?’

''The engineer [Adami], the attitude of not answering the radio, you have to be more professional than that and a person like that isn’t healthy for him, the team, it’s not healthy for anyone personally."

"If I were with Ferrari, I would have pulled his ears and said: ‘You do that again, and you’ll be working at a desk in the office because we’re still not interested in people like you, do you understand?'"

Hamilton and Adami’s tumultuous relationship

F1 is not even halfway through its season, and Hamilton already has a lengthy back catalogue of quotable exchanges with Adami from grands prix in 2025.

Most of these team radio messages have often emphasised their miscommunication, or their often sharp/awkward tone with one another.

Amongst these, Hamilton’s ‘take a tea break’ comments stand out from Miami, where he was clearly frustrated with the length of time it took Ferrari to orchestrate team orders between himself and Leclerc.

An awkward exchange also occurred in Monaco where Hamilton asked Adami if he was ‘upset’ with the champion, but was met with silence, a situation that Montoya believes needs to end at Ferrari.

Hamilton has publicly stated that there is no issue between himself and Adami, but could a more harmonious relationship with his race engineer be beneficial to his future at Ferrari?