Lewis Hamilton has described the decision to part ways with his race engineer Riccardo Adami as very difficult ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 season. The seven-time world champion will work with an interim engineer for the early races, calling the lack of a permanent replacement detrimental. He expressed gratitude for Adami's efforts during a challenging 2025 campaign at Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton's transition to Ferrari has included personnel changes, with race engineer Riccardo Adami moved to a new role as Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy and Test Previous Cars Manager, announced last month. This follows Hamilton's debut season at the team in 2025, marked by communication challenges and a lack of chemistry between the driver and engineer.
Speaking during the first day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit on February 11, 2026, Hamilton addressed the situation. "It was obviously a very difficult decision to make," he said. "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."
For the Barcelona shakedown, Hamilton worked with Bryan Bozzi, who typically engineers teammate Charles Leclerc. From Bahrain onward, he is paired provisionally with Carlo Santi, formerly Kimi Raikkonen's race engineer at Ferrari. Hamilton noted that this arrangement is temporary, lasting only a few races. "It's actually quite a difficult period because it's not long-term, the solution that I currently have," he explained. "So early on into the season, it's going to all be switching up again and I'll have to learn to work with someone new. So that's detrimental to me too... But it is the situation that I'm faced with, and I'll try to do the best that I can. The team is trying to do the best they can to make it as seamless as possible."
A Ferrari spokesperson stated the team is looking for the right permanent person and insisted Hamilton is not being disadvantaged. Reports suggest Ferrari has identified a successor, but availability issues, possibly related to gardening leave, delay the appointment. During the session, Hamilton drove the Ferrari SF-26, completing 52 laps and posting the fourth-fastest time of 1m36.433s, one second behind Max Verstappen's benchmark.
The 2026 season begins with the Australian Grand Prix on March 6-8, following pre-season tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20.
