After commenting on the incident between the seven-time world champion and Max Verstappen at the Mexican GP — which later resulted in a ten-second penalty for gaining an advantage — Doornbos stressed that “there's just no chemistry between the engineer and the driver. The communication between Lewis and Ricky, his engineer, doesn't feel like they're switched on to each other.

Doornbos finally emphasized: “I don't think they're really on it. If you want to be fighting for wins, championships, and podiums, you have to take every opportunity you can to maximize it.”

Doornbos isn’t the only one to have noticed a partnership that, unlike Peter Bonnington — with whom Hamilton formed one of the most iconic driver-engineer pairings in Mercedes’ F1 history — seems to show several gaps in terms of chemistry and communication.

Karun Chandhok, meanwhile, commenting on the Verstappen-Hamilton incident that later led to a penalty for Hamilton, also criticized Adami for “poor communication,” saying he had “unnecessarily riled up the driver without giving him all of the facts.”

Hamilton’s race was heavily impacted by the penalty, losing a significant amount of time during the stop as he had to serve the ten seconds without touching the car, ultimately finishing the race in just eighth position.