Lewis Hamilton makes drastic U-turn after worrying Ferrari radio message emerges from F1 Austrian GP

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton appeared to make a drastic U-turn after his worrying team radio from the Austrian Grand Prix was broadcast to the world.

Earlier in June, Hamilton endured a tough race at the Canadian Grand Prix as he sustained damage and ended up finishing in sixth place.

Last weekend, the 40-year-old was hoping for a better outing at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Heading into the race at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Ferrari managed to bring a long-awaited upgrade to the floor of Hamilton's car.

Although the seven-time Formula 1 world champion enjoyed a much better weekend, he was still 10 seconds behind teammate Charles Leclerc as he finished in fourth place.

McLaren star Lando Norris won the race ahead of championship leader Oscar Piastri and Leclerc.

During the race, Hamilton appeared to clash with his race engineer, Riccardo Adami, over a strategic call.

Well into his stint on the hard tyres, Hamilton made clear that he would like to try a one-stop race and told the team that he did not want to pit.

The Brit said: "My tyres are okay. Can I extend? How many more laps left?"

However, Adami responded with an order to pit at the end of lap 51 out of 70, the Italian said: "And box, 20 laps," to which Hamilton replied: "I don’t want to stop."

Ignoring Hamilton's request, Adami reiterated: "Box, box."

Speaking at the time, Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz questioned Ferrari's decision to bring Hamilton in, he said: "All they done by pitting him is guarantee he finish behind Leclerc and P4 wherelse if they left him out potentially a one stop at least Lewis might had a chance holding off his team mate I understand Lewis’s frustration."

However, reflecting on the race after the chequered flag, Hamilton made a U-turn and ended up agreeing with the team's call.

As reported by Planet F1, Hamilton was asked by DAZN F1 whether the one-stop strategy was possible; he replied: "Yes. But in the end, I saw that the decision taken was probably the right one."

📻 Hamilton’s radio: "I don't wanna stop" #F1 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/RZG6lzo41r

— Radio Messages (@radiomessages) June 29, 2025

Overall, it has been a disappointing start to life at Ferrari for Hamilton as the SF-25 has simply failed to deliver on the pre-season hype.

When asked about the latest upgrade, Hamilton did not offer an overly optimistic response.

He explained: "I generally struggle to drive this car in the race. It’s a huge challenge for me. I’m getting used to the balance… but it was difficult for me during the race. We’ve improved in qualifying, but I had issues with understeer and oversteer in both low and high speed and couldn’t compensate for it.

"On a track like this you need stability at high speed and for the car to rotate in the corners. And on top of that the brakes were overheating. Still a lot to improve but being P3 and P4 is already a big step forward."

This weekend, F1 will return to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, a race Hamilton won last season.