Riccardo Adami, Lewis Hamilton’s F1 race engineer, has been moved into a new role at Scuderia Ferrari after 11 years. Adami started at the Scuderia in 2015. He served as race engineer for Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz, before working with Lewis Hamilton.
Adami started his F1 career with Minardi in 2002. He became a race engineer in 2005. The Italian engineer also worked with Vitantonio Liuzzi, Sebastian Vettel, Sébastien Buemi and Daniel Ricciardo as their engineer at now known as Racing Bulls.
During his time with the German driver at Toro Rosso, Vettel memorably took his and the team’s first win at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. The pair were reunited at Ferrari from 2015 to 2018 and worked very well together. Ultimately, however, they fell short of a championship.
The Italian also had a strong working relationship with Carlos Sainz as they spent four seasons together. Adami oversaw four wins for the rapid Spanish driver.
Communication struggles between Riccardo Adami and Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari F1
Adami’s relationship with the latest driver, Lewis Hamilton, however, was very testy on team radios. From feeding Hamilton too much information to not enough information, both have tried to find a balance all season.
For example, Adami warned Ferrari star Hamilton for track limits after two strikes, instead of one at Abu Dhabi. Hamilton responded back, “Let me know when I’ve got the first one man, s*** man.”
However, earlier, Hamilton admitted to the media that he has a good relationship with Adami.
“Our relationship is great. No problems. We’re constantly learning more and more about each other,” Hamilton shared, “We’re constantly adapting to the way both of us like to work. He’s worked with lots of different drivers before. We don’t have any problems whatsoever.”
Despite reports from Adami and Hamilton would remain together for 2026, this has been proven to be incorrect as Ferrari have made the call to move him away from it. The veteran engineer will now with the FDA and the TPC programme.
Scuderia Ferrari statement
“Riccardo Adami has moved to a new role within the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy as Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy and Test Previous Cars Manager, where his extensive trackside experience and F1 expertise contributes to the development of future talent and to strengthening performance culture across the programme. Scuderia Ferrari HP would like to thank Riccardo for his commitment and contribution to his trackside role and wishes him every success in his new position. The appointment of the new race engineer for car #44 will be announced in due course.”
