Lewis Hamilton has one obvious area of improvement he has to address at Ferrari after the Australian Grand Prix

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The start of the 2025 Formula 1 season couldn’t have been more chaotic as Lando Norris managed to get his championship challenge off to the perfect start.

The Australian Grand Prix also saw Lewis Hamilton make his Ferrari debut and while he finished in the points, he was also leading the race at one point.

It was a race where survival was essential with four drivers starting their first F1 seasons retiring due to hitting the barriers.

Hamilton started the race in P8 and spent much of the Grand Prix in that position following the Williams of Alex Albon.

However, a mixture of changeable weather and safety cars meant Hamilton took the lead before pitting and falling to 10th in the space of a lap before eventually coming home in P9.

Hamilton had some complaints about his Ferrari but, understandably, he’s still learning a lot about his car and the processes at his new team.

One interesting aspect of the race was Hamilton’s communications with new engineer Riccardo Adami.

Hamilton and Adami have been learning how to communicate with each other over the winter but the race in Melbourne highlighted that they still need to get to grips with how the other wants to work.

Lewis Hamilton must improve communication with Ferrari race engineer after Australian Grand Prix

One of the pivotal moments in the race was after the safety car brought out by Fernando Alonso’s crash ended and the weather suddenly changed.

It ruined Oscar Piastri’s race as he spun just before the pit lane, while Max Verstappen could have potentially pipped Norris had he pitted a lap earlier.

Before that moment, Karun Chandhok was speaking on Sky Sports F1 about his communications and said: “Back on Lewis, it’s really fascinating.

“He’s still getting more coaching about changes he can make and suggestions about when to use and enable the DRS and early upshifts and stuff like that.

“He’s coming back with, ‘Leave me to it’, so, clearly the way that Riccardo Adami is used to be working with Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Vettel before that is a bit different to the amount of information Lewis is used to having with Pete Bonnington [Mercedes race engineer] or from the pit wall.”

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Hamilton at one point on the team radio was heard saying: “I’m learning the car as I go, mate, just leave me to it with the DRS, it’s not an issue.”

If Hamilton and Adami had communicated better, the seven-time world champion could have demanded to pit earlier if he had known what the weather was going to do.

However, Ferrari’s strategists got Hamilton and Leclerc’s strategies wrong and both drivers saw a very decent points haul slip away.

Frederic Vasseur already annoyed by radio message to Lewis Hamilton

Team principal Frederic Vasseur has a tough job on his hands with Leclerc and Hamilton as both drivers will believe that they should be number one this season.

From the initial evidence, Leclerc is in a stronger position, having outqualified Hamilton and then overtaking him after the final safety car.

However, he was also heard complaining on the team radio, demanding that his race engineer leave him alone at times during the race.

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Vasseur was annoyed with one radio message Hamilton received during the race weekend, highlighting what can still be improved over the coming weeks.

He’s still trying to figure out the car too, with Adami urging Hamilton to ‘practice’ using the K1 setting while trying to overtake Albon.