How Hamilton’s dream Ferrari debut become a disaster at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix? Explained

The entire world was waiting to see Lewis Hamilton wearing that iconic red suit and race at the 2025 Australian Grand prix. Many expected Ferrari to win the race, and most fans wanted Lewis Hamilton to win on his debut. The dream turned into a Disaster as Ferrari spoiled their race with their blunt strategy. 

It has become a habit for the Maranello-based team in spoiling races of world champions starting with Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and now Lewis Hamilton. A Formula 1 Victory was in a plater for them, but they missed the trick by changing the tyres at the wrong time. So, let us look at what went wrong for the team and how Lewis Hamilton’s dream debut became a disaster in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. 

Hamilton’s dream Ferrari debut become a disaster- Explained

Rain hit race

As expected, the Australian Grand Prix was spoiled by intermittent rain, which interrupted the race, putting up a big challenge for the teams in deciding the strategy. Some teams, like Mercedes and McLaren, were spot-on with their plans and never panicked. The Albert Park Street circuit was a huge challenge for many drivers as the narrow passes and corners became a nightmare, especially to the rookies.

What made Ferrari press the panic button?

Totally, 6 drivers crashed during the Australian Grand Prix; most of them crashed due to their rear wheel torque on the slippery roads of the circuit. Even drivers like Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri went wide off the tracks. This alerted the teams, and they wanted to finish the race safely without any crashes. It also created a panic inside the Ferrari garage as they didn't want to take risks.

Big Strategic Bliunder

In the later stages, rain again interrupted and made the conditions worse. Max Verstappen and Lando Norris went wide and couldn't handle their cars. So, their teams called them for a pit stop and changed from slicks to intermediates. This made Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc the race leaders, and both had a nice chance of winning the race for Ferrari. 

Seeing the other teams, Ferrari didn't want to take any risk and called their drivers for a pitstop. Hamilton insisted on staying with the hard tyres as he expected the rain to stop in a few minutes and wanted to stay on track. Ferrari dismissed his calls, brought the two drivers into the pits and changed their tyres to intermediates. 

As Hamilton said, the rain stopped, and the track started drying. If they had listened to Hamilton’s call, Ferrari would have won the 2025 Australian Grand prix with Lewis Hamilton taking the pole position on his debut race for the team. He was also frustrated after emerging out of the pits in P10. Even after the race, he didn't utter a word on the radio as he was very angry with the strategy.

Radio Miscommunication

Neither Hamilton nor Leclerc had proper communication with their race engineers. Both drivers were frustrated with the radio messages often distracting their race. This is the first race for Lewis with Ferrari, so we can understand he is on a learning curve, and it will take time for him to adapt to his new team. But what happened with Leclerc clearly shows the panic inside the Ferrari garage. 

Ferrari power and drivability issues

The Italian team is also having Power issues in their car as they were not the fastest on the grid. The biggest shock was that Williams drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon dominated the Ferrari team throughout the weekend. Lewis Hamilton also complained that the Ferrari car was difficult to drive, even under normal conditions. So there are only a few days left for the Chinese Grand Prix, and the Maranello team should find a solution for all their issues.

Also Read: 2025 Australian Grand Prix race report: Winners and losers of the brutal F1 race.