Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari/5th) facing a penalty: Superstar as a nuisance

What exactly is going wrong with the Ferrari radio communications between Lewis Hamilton and his race engineer Carlo Santi? There’s no doubt that the two get on well personally – that much is clear. Yet communication is still far from ideal, both in Madrid and now in Baku.

After the second free practice session, the seven-time Formula 1 champion had to report to the race stewards. The stewards – Gerd Ennser (Germany), Loic Bacquelaine (Belgium), Derek Warwick (Great Britain) and Danil Solomin (Azerbaijan) wanted to know from the most successful Grand Prix driver why he had apparently been dawdling for no apparent reason in front of the oncoming Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson.

The New Zealander radioed in: “I nearly crashed into him! Oh my God, that’s so dangerous!”

Dangerous – and not the first time. Just a few weeks ago on the new Madring circuit, Hamilton got in the way of several opponents. In Spain, the 41-year-old Brit got off with a warning.

Even back then, however, German Grand Prix winner Ralf Schumacher criticised him: “What stands out to me in free practice is the man in red who seems to be standing in the way of all his rivals because he’s driving down the middle of the track – Lewis Hamilton. I don’t know why he does that so often. It was already noticeable back in 2025. When you’re driving slowly, it’s actually unsportsmanlike towards the other drivers.”

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Something that happens time and again in Baku: radio interference between the pit wall and the car, partly due to the closely packed buildings. Or perhaps Santi’s warning to Hamilton about Lawson either didn’t come through at all or arrived too late. In any case, Lewis Hamilton certainly doesn’t deliberately drive in front of an opponent’s car.