For the first time since it was confirmed Riccardo Adami was stepping aside as his race engineer, Lewis Hamilton talked to print media at the 2026 F1 Bahrain Test about it.
The seven-time World Champion ended the 2025 F1 Season with no Grand Prix wins or podiums, a first in his now 19 years in the sport. Through that tough season, the Briton and Italian had a lot of awkward moments over the radio.
Ferrari announced that Adami would take a new role in the team’s driver academy. It remains to be seen who will be his race engineer in the upcoming campaign.
The 105-time race winner talked about the difficulty of the call that was made.
“It was obviously a very difficult decision to make. I’m really grateful for all the effort he put in last year, and his patience, and, you know, it was a difficult year for us all.”
Hamilton and Ferrari changing it up for the 2026 F1 season
The 41-year-old will work with Carlo Santi, Kimi Räikkönen’s former race engineer at the Scuderia in 2018. However, this is on an interm basis as the team waits to assign him a new race engineer.
Lewis Hamilton admits starting afresh for a second consecutive year is not ideal. After 11 straight years with Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington at Mercedes, it’s a very different time for the legendary British driver.
“Early on into the season, it’s going to be switching up again, working with someone new, that’s what you need to look forward to. It would be ideal to start the season with people with whom you have done multiple seasons and that have been through thick and thin.”
After finishing 7th overall on the first day of the 2026 F1 open test in Bahrain, Hamilton and Ferrari are “trying to do the best” they can given the current situation regarding a wait for a new race engineer.
“But at the moment, this is the situation we have. It is a situation that affects me as well, trying to do the best I can – we are trying to do the best we can.”
