Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari’s failure to appoint a new permanent race engineer for the 2026 Formula 1 season will have a “negative impact” on his second season with the Italian team.
Ferrari confirmed in January that Hamilton’s race engineer Riccardo Adami, who was in charge of his challenging debut season with the team, would be moving elsewhere within the organization.
The team has yet to make an official announcement about his replacement, but Carlo Santi, who previously worked with Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari, is understood to have been appointed on an interim basis.
Although he did not mention Santi by name, Hamilton confirmed on Wednesday during pre-season testing in Bahrain that he would change race engineers again in the not-too-distant future.
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Lewis Hamilton appeared irritated with communication over team radio at various stages of the 2025 season.
Hamilton said: “It’s not a long-term thing and the solution we have right now is only for a few races, so it’s actually quite a difficult time.”
“So you have to make another switch early in the season and you have to learn to work with new players. So that’s detrimental to the season you want to come in with players who have been through multiple seasons and have been through ups and downs and are settled.”
“But that’s the situation I’m in and I’m going to do the best I can. The team is going to do our best to make things go as seamlessly as possible.”
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Jenson Button admits it was “tough” to watch former teammate Lewis Hamilton struggle in his first season at Ferrari, but is rooting for the seven-time world champion’s progress this year.
Team radio messages broadcast throughout Hamilton’s first season at Ferrari suggested communication difficulties between the seven-time world champion and Adami, but Hamilton said it was a “very difficult” decision to make the change.
“In Ricciardo’s case it was obviously a very difficult decision to make,” Hamilton said.
“I really, really appreciate all the effort he put in last year and his perseverance in what has been a difficult year for all of us.”
Hamilton: New F1 car is even more fun to drive
Hamilton struggled with the previous ground-effect generation of F1 cars and ended 2025 without a podium finish. It was the first season in my career that I didn’t finish a race in the top three.
The reset of regulations gives Ferrari the opportunity to develop its power unit and chassis beyond its rivals, giving it a chance to challenge for the championship. Hamilton said he is enjoying his new 2026 car, even though it feels more like a “GP2 car” due to its lower downforce.
“At the moment, I don’t feel anything like the genre that we’ve seen before, and I think it’s still too early,” he said.
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Lewis Hamilton talks about tough conditions on first day of testing in Bahrain, describing lack of grip as ‘Monza downforce’
“With the baseline car that we have, we’re still trying to test a lot of different things, trying to find a window where it works well, we haven’t optimized the tires yet, we haven’t optimized the aero package yet, we have all these different things like ride height and mechanical balance, so we’re not going to judge that right away.
“It was windy today and I didn’t feel very good. It was very, very gusty, the strongest I can remember being here. We had to take it with a pinch of salt, and it’s our first day here and mornings are never fun. But overall, as I said in the last test, it’s a fun car to drive.”
Hamilton has not challenged for the title since the controversial 2021 season and is tied with Michael Schumacher for the drivers’ championship record with seven.
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Craig Slater asks former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn if Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari can turn their fortunes around in 2026
Asked in an interview with Sky Sports F1 if he felt the new regulations would give him the chance to win an eighth title, he said: “I don’t know at the moment. I hope we’re in that range.”
“Aside from Mercedes, I think we look pretty close, but we don’t know what kind of fuel people are putting on it. There are rumors that they are putting on a certain fuel that Mercedes is putting on, and there are also whispers that they have some extra power, something like a compression ratio, that the rest of us don’t have.”
“So hopefully it gets resolved and the FIA takes care of it and allows us all to start on a level playing field. We’ll see then.”
Sky Sports F1 Bahrain test schedule
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Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz takes a closer look at what F1 will look like in 2026 as the sport begins a new era of charging mode, more power, new teams and engine suppliers.
Test 1: Wednesday 11th, Thursday 12th, Friday 13th February
3pm: Final Hours of Track Driving Live 8pm: Test Lap 8:30pm: Ted’s Test Notebook
Test 2: Wednesday 18th, Thursday 19th, Friday 20th February
6:50am to 11:05am: Morning session live 11:55am to 4:10pm: Afternoon session live 8pm: Test lap
Watch every race of the 2026 F1 season live on Sky Sports, including the Australian Grand Prix from March 6-8. Stream Sky Sports now – cancel anytime with no contract
