Lewis Hamilton has expressed that his partnership with Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami is improving with each passing weekend in the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari ended his much-revered working relationship with Peter Bonnington, who had been the voice in his ear across his entire stint at Mercedes.
The Bonnington-Hamilton collaboration turned into the most productive driver and engineer combination in the series as it delivered six Drivers’ titles and 84 victories.
But with Bonnington electing to remain at Mercedes, Hamilton has since teamed up with Adami, who engineered his predecessors, Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz.
Hamilton’s co-operation with Adami was scrutinised one race into his Ferrari venture amid his request to have less interaction during the rain-hit Australian Grand Prix.
The seven-time F1 champion, who recalled how his relationship with Bonington began in the same vein, admitted his surprise that the exchange caught the headlines.
“I don’t know why everyone’s been so negative about it,” he said at the time. “I was polite. I always said ‘please’ at the end.
“When you look at some of the other drivers who have been super vocal, almost abusive, their engineers have taken batterings for years, and mine didn’t even take a battering.
“There are a couple of individuals that were quite rude on how we spoke.
“It’s something you learn along the way. From race to race, we’re going to get stronger together, and that’s the most important part.”
Hamilton ‘gelling’ with Ferrari engineer
The matter was once more brought into the limelight post-Monaco when Adami did not issue a response to Hamilton’s message over team radio on his cooldown lap.
Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur and Hamilton denied that tension had triggered that episode, with the Briton optimistic that the relationship is trending in the right direction.
“I’m pleased with the progress,” Hamilton told media including Motorsport Week at Silverstone. “I’m really pleased with the direction.
“My engineer and I have been really gelling a lot better in terms of how we set the car up. I was much happier in the car.”
The change Hamilton wants at Ferrari
Hamilton’s upturn in results over the past two events has coincided with his revelation that he has converged on the set-up Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc is using.
However, Hamilton divulged that he is working hard behind the scenes with the team to ensure that is not a direction he has to take with the Italian marque’s 2026 car.
“There’s obviously we have lots of different tools and things that we the ways in which we can set the car up,” he explained.
“Obviously, Charles has been here for a long time and he’s been a part of evolving, developing this car. He’s very accustomed to it.
“I’ve tried all the other directions that should work, but they just don’t for whatever reason.
“I’ve slowly migrated to the position where to the place where Charles does run the car. Last week [Austria] was the closest that I’ve been, and our pace was the closest it’s ever been.
“So it is still tough. It’s a tough balance to drive and it’s not a comfortable one. It’s not one that I want to have in future.
“So I’m working with Loic [Serra] and with all the guys at the factory to make sure that the next car will have naturally some of my DNA in it.
“And hopefully we’ll get we’ll be able to get some of the characteristics that I’m hoping to have in it for next year.”
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