Former Aston Martin Formula One strategist Bernie Collins raised concerns about possible trust issues between Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari.
It wasn’t the starting point for fairy tales at Ferrari. Hamilton would have hoped to follow the seven-time world champion blockbuster F1 Switch from rival Mercedes in the winter.
Things have improved in China after Hamilton finished in a disappointing 10th place in the wet, chaotic season opener in Australia. There, the 40-year-old Briton transformed his first Ferrari pole position into a compelling first victory in the sprint.
However, Hamilton finished just sixth in Shanghai’s main grand prix and was disqualified after he and his teammate Charles Leclair failed separate post-race scrutiny checks.
Hamilton’s Ferrari was considered illegal because his boards had excessive wear at half a millimeter, but Leclerc’s car was 1kg under a weight limit of 800kg.
The cost of the double exclusion was 18 points, with the Italian team in the constructors’ championship being fifth and facing the worst start of the F1 season since 2009.
Is it the problem of Lewis Hamilton and the Ferrari Trust?
Collins believes the combination of poor invocation of strategy in Melbourne and operational errors that led to DSQS in Shanghai could potentially lead Hamilton to lose some confidence in his new team.
“Ferrari had the wrong strategy in Australia, so it’s a bump. It should be better because he’s been disqualified in China. Lewis definitely had the wrong strategy because he shouldn’t have pited the second time,” Collins told Sky Sports.
“Lewis was really struggling with the car on Sunday and the car was illegal. The change in setup didn’t respond the way he wanted it to.
“It’s a bump. If they go through it and find out that it’s wrong, Lewis can get through it pretty quickly. But it’s one of these little things that adds to the lack of trust.
“When Sebastian Vettel came to us at Aston Martin, I wanted him to think we were good at what we did.
“If she calls me the pit, I trust the team, so I’m going to do it.”
Collins explained that the responsibility to ensure their cars are legal is essentially a fundamental responsibility to one individual, Ricardo Adami, a race engineer at Hamilton.
“It’s basically the job of a race engineer to make sure the car is legal. Each race engineer on each car is legal,” she said.
“They understand and understand why it’s illegal in both cases in weight and board wear. It’s nice to know if Leclerc is legal on Plank Wear.
“We know Lewis’s car is legal because all cars are checked by weight. His car is not checked, so we don’t know if Leclerc is legal with board wear or not.”