'No one told me it was raining elsewhere' says Hamilton after strategy error · RaceFans

Lewis Hamilton said Ferrari didn’t give him all the information he needed to avoid making a costly strategy error in his first race for the team.

He briefly led the Australian Grand Prix after he did not join other drivers in switching from slicks to intermediate tyres when rain fell during the race. However, when it became clear the conditions were worse than he realised, Hamilton finally came in, losing all the places he had gained and more.

He said the rain initially fell on one part of the circuit and he wasn’t aware how bad it was elsewhere.

“It intensified a little bit in the last sector, but the rest of the track was okay,” Hamilton told the official F1 channel. “Obviously I didn’t know where everybody else was.

“I knew people had stopped [in the pits], but ultimately then all of a sudden it started raining and I didn’t know, no one told me that it was raining more elsewhere, and all of a sudden I was faced with it around the rest of the track. It was a bit of an opportunity missed, but I’m glad I kept it on-track.”

After the restart Hamilton gained one place from Pierre Gasly but was passed by his team mate Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri – the latter sweeping around the outside of the Ferrari driver at turn nine.

The communications between Hamilton and his new race engineer Ricardo Adami were not always smooth during the race. Afterwards Hamilton admitted he was still getting to grips with the different settings on the Ferrari steering wheel.

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He was initially unsure where he had scored a point in his first race for Ferrari, being before told he had, in 10th place.

“Overall, not what I was hoping for,” Hamilton admitted. “There was so much to get accustomed to, get used to, with all the switch settings and changes that they were throwing at you.”

However he believes there is clear potential for improvement from the next round in China. “The balance of the car was really very tricky, really tricky today,” he said. “So definitely, I think we can improve that in the next race, hopefully, and get the car in a sweeter spot because I think there’s a lot more potential in the car than what we were able to extract today.”