Lewis Hamilton has just done something for the first time ever in his F1 career as he hits new low at Ferrari

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Lewis Hamilton fuelled the Ferrari crisis narrative at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday. He quarrelled with his team en route to a disappointing eighth place.

The weekend had started with a much-needed boost for the Scuderia as their superstar signing bagged a Sprint podium. Hamilton produced a strategic masterclass, nailing his switch to the slick tyres and surging up the order as a result.

However, he couldn’t generate any momentum for qualifying. He suffered his first Q2 exit as a Ferrari driver, only able to manage P12 after an error on a make-or-break lap.

With teammate Charles Leclerc eighth, it was clear that the SF-25 was fundamentally slow. Leclerc only gained one place in the race, with Hamilton moving up four spots.

Damningly, Ferrari scored as many points as the hugely impressive Williams (10) in a dry Grand Prix. Hamilton thought he could catch Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli for P6 and sarcastically criticised his team for the delay in telling Leclerc to move aside.

When they did eventually make the call, he failed to catch the Italian at the required rate and ultimately returned the position. Ferrari remain fourth in the constructors’ and are more than 150 points behind leaders McLaren already.

Lewis Hamilton fails to score a podium on first four visits to Miami Grand Prix

For the first time in his F1 career, Hamilton has visited a circuit four times without scoring a podium. As the table below shows, that makes Miami his weakest track.

It was previously tied with the Buddh International Circuit in India (only on the calendar from 2011 to 2013), but Hamilton made unwanted personal history this weekend.

The introduction of the Miami Grand Prix coincided with Mercedes’ drop-off at the start of the ground-effect era. Ferrari weren’t competitive this year either.

Hamilton scored a podium in the Sprint, but this won’t count towards the record books. Even in limited cars, one wouldn’t expect him to go out in Q2 twice and miss out in the top five in 11 out of 12 competitive sessions.

Damon Hill’s stern warning to Lewis Hamilton after Ferrari team orders dispute

The Miami GP has just signed a contract extension that will keep it on the F1 calendar until 2041. That will comfortably outlast Hamilton’s career.

But however many visits he has left, he’ll need to work out why he hasn’t shown his best form in Florida.

Even Leclerc sounded baffled by Ferrari’s handling in a team radio message during qualifying. Fred Vasseur may be inclined to withhold judgement on Hamilton until he’s driving competitive machinery.

That doesn’t mean he’ll condone his radio messages behind the scenes. 1996 world champion Damon Hill says Hamilton needs to learn ‘no one is bigger than Ferrari’.