Lewis Hamilton has revealed his new Formula 1 race engineer is only a temporary replacement for him at Ferrari and could be “detrimental” to his 2026 ambitions.
The seven-time F1 World Champion begins his sophomore year with the Maranello-based team in 2026.
After leaving Mercedes at the end of the 2024 campaign, Hamilton came into Ferrari with major expectations and hype.
That said, his debut season with the Italian marque was plagued with compatibility issues. Firstly, he didn’t really gel with the SF-25, a plight only augmented by his inherent inability to adapt to the ground effects cars anyway.
But more publicly, however, he had a disastrous relationship with his race engineer Ricardo Adami.
Adami had previously served as race engineer for race winners with the Scuderia; Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz. But his pairing with Hamilton, while outwardly explosive, also was the Briton’s first season in F1 without even a Grand Prix podium to his name.
In the build up to the 2026 season, the team announced that Adami had been relocated to the outfit’s junior programme with Carlo Santi appointed as Hamilton’s new race engineer.
Speaking to media including Motorsport Week during the opening day of the second pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit, Hamilton paid his thanks to Adami for his service, though.
“It is obviously with Riccardo, is obviously a very difficult decision to make,” he said. “Really grateful for all the effort he put in last year and his patience, as you know, it was a difficult year for us all.”
Lewis Hamilton to ‘do the best I can’ amid Ferrari’s temporary solution
Hamilton has a lot of learning to do with the 2026 regulations reset, as do his rivals up and down the grid.
The latest technical mandate is slated to change the very fabric of F1, including race-craft with the likes of active-aerodynamics, the 50-50 hybrid PU and other novelties in the cockpit.
Naturally, the Briton would have liked at least a semblance of continuity as he transitioned into the sport’s latest era with Ferrari. And while he would have expected to draw up a rapport with Santi, it turns out even Santi isn’t going to stay in his position for too long.
Hamilton revealed how Santi’s appointment is only a stop-gap before a permanent solution is hired – who while not confirmed is strongly suggested to be Oscar Piastri’s former lead trackside performance engineer, Cedric Michel-Grosjean.
This, the former Mercedes man believes, is going to be “detrimental” to his season.
“It’s actually quite a difficult period, because it’s not long-term. The solution that I currently have, it’s only gonna be a few races,” Hamilton added.
“So early on into the season, it’s gonna be switching up again, and I’ll have to learn someone to work with someone new. So that’s detrimental to me too.
“A season where you want to arrive with people that have done multiple seasons, that are that have been through thick and thin, and calm.
“But it is the situation that I’m faced with, and I’ll try and do the best I can. We are, I think the team is trying to do the best they can to help seamless as possible.”
Notably, it would appear Hamilton became privy to this news only recently, as the Briton was buoyed by Ferrari’s “winning mentality” only a few weeks ago after the private shakedown at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, in January.
READ MORE – Why ‘win or nothing’ philosophy may be costing Ferrari F1 success
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