David Croft says Ferrari director used one word to sum up Lewis Hamilton’s struggles in Miami

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Lewis Hamilton struggled with tyres during a disappointing Miami Grand Prix weekend, Ferrari’s sporting director Diego Ioverno told David Croft.

Hamilton was behind teammate Charles Leclerc for virtually the whole weekend in Florida, only finishing ahead in Sunday’s race due to his teammate’s late penalty. He was around four-tenths slower in Sprint qualifying and three-tenths back in Grand Prix qualy.

Hamilton lost out to Max Verstappen in the Sprint, and those squabbles saw him finish over 21 seconds behind race winner Lando Norris and 15 behind his teammate. A first-lap incident with Franco Colapinto on Sunday left him with damage and set up a lonely race in P7.

‘Overheating’ was Lewis Hamilton’s enemy in Miami

Having lost considerable downforce in the tangle with Colapinto, Hamilton couldn’t show his true speed on Sunday. His Sprint performance was a bigger concern, then, even if the Verstappen battle partly explains the gap to the cars ahead.

Verstappen was ordered to let Hamilton through after passing him off the track, but the 41-year-old hesitated when the Red Bull slowed at the final corner, wary of being ahead at the overtake mode line.

Verstappen got ahead for good on the following lap and was nearly eight seconds clear of Hamilton by the chequered flag.

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Prior to Grand Prix qualifying, Croft received a brief explanation of Hamilton’s struggles from Ioverno.

The Sky Sports commentator said: “The Ferrari sporting director walked past me in the paddock and I said, ‘Lewis, tyres?’

“He went, ‘Overheating!’ and then threw his arms up in the air, which is an unequivocal yes, it was all about the rear tyres.”

Lewis Hamilton’s Miami overheating issues explained

Track temperatures at Miami exceeded 50 degrees during the Sprint portion of the weekend, which clearly complicated the tyre management task.

This shouldn’t be as great a concern at the next race in Canada, even if the traction zones on the exits of the slow corners will punish the rear tyres. The Spanish GP next month could pose a similar test to Miami, as could July’s Hungarian GP.

It wasn’t just the tyres that were overheating last weekend, though. Hamilton was told to lift and coast during the final stint – an unwelcome throwback to 2025 – in an effort to cool the car.

Meanwhile, Hamilton repeatedly complained about a lack of power from his battery during the race, reminiscent of the issues he’d experienced in Japan just before the break. The seven-time world champion appears to be losing some momentum after a positive start to the season.