Lewis Hamilton's true feelings to his first qualifying session at Ferrari have been revealed in a radio message that wasn't heard on the live feed of the Australian Grand Prix.
On Saturday morning, the 2025 Formula One season finally got underway as all 20 drivers competed in the first qualifying session of the season in Melbourne, Australia.
Heading into the session, all eyes were on F1 superstar Hamilton as the seven-time world champion competed in his first competitive session since leaving former team Mercedes to join rivals Ferrari.
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And now, fans have been given an insight into exactly what Hamilton thought of his first qualifying session in red, as details of a radio message that wasn’t broadcast on the world feed have emerged.
Although many fans had hoped that Hamilton would immediately show that he was back at his very best with Ferrari by taking pole position on Saturday, they had to settle for seeing the Brit finish the qualifying session in eighth.
The 40-year-old clearly struggled to extract the most out of a car which appears to be not quite as fast as expected, and he explained exactly how he was feeling to new race engineer Riccardo Adami, who has previously worked with Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari.
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“I don’t know what happened there, mate,” Hamilton said in a radio message not show on the live broadcast of the session.
Adami reassured his new driver that he should be happy with how he performed in the session, particularly given that it was clearly a tough day for Ferrari overall with teammate Charles Leclerc also underperforming.
“Tough one,” the engineer replied. “Overall good job out there.”
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While it isn't good for Ferrari, Hamilton can take confidence in the fact that Leclerc also struggled, only qualifying one position ahead of his new teammate having put in a lap that was six-tenths of a second quicker.
However, both men will no doubt be disheartened to see that several drivers that are in slower cars out-qualified them in Melbourne, with the likes of Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon set to start Sunday's race ahead of the Ferraris.
McLaren's Lando Norris will start the race in pole position ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri and reigning champion Max Verstappen.
Topics: Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Formula 1
Ben McCrum