Lewis Hamilton is happy with the collaboration with his new race engineer Carlo Santi. The Brit was still regularly at odds with Santi’s predecessor Riccardo Adami last season, after which Ferrari decided to separate the two. A year later, however, Hamilton is expressing a very different sentiment: ‘I really enjoy working with Santi.’
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During his first year at Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton set an unwanted record: never before had a driver raced so many Grands Prix – 26 races – in Ferrari red before achieving his first podium finish. At the recent Chinese GP, the seven-time world champion ended his podium drought. Additionally, the collaboration with his then race engineer Riccardo Adami was also difficult.
‘Santi is really amazing’
Ferrari decided to intervene and Carlo Santi temporarily took over Adami’s duties at the beginning of 2026. After his highest ever finish in Ferrari red – second place in Canada – Hamilton spoke about how well the collaboration with Santi is going. “I chose a different setup this weekend by thoroughly analyzing the data, in close cooperation with my engineer,” Hamilton said. “He is really amazing and I really enjoy working with him.”
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This is a very different tone from the Brit than what he expressed earlier this season. At that time, Hamilton feared that having a temporary race engineer would negatively affect his performance. “That is a disadvantage for me,” he said then. “At the start of a season, you want to work with people you have collaborated with for several seasons, and I can’t do that.”
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