{"id":436142,"date":"2026-01-27T09:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/436142\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T09:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:15:12","slug":"who-will-become-lewis-hamiltons-new-race-engineer-at-ferrari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/436142\/","title":{"rendered":"Who will become Lewis Hamilton\u2019s new race engineer at Ferrari?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Formula 1<\/a>\u00a0has arrived in Barcelona, where teams are shaking down their new challengers. But big questions linger at Ferrari, as Lewis Hamilton is still missing a race engineer ahead of the 2026 campaign.With teams getting to grips with the new regulations, they need as much off-the-track stability as possible. However, Ferrari\u2019s decision to remove race engineer Riccardo Adami<\/a> has left Lewis Hamilton without a key team member, just six weeks out from the first race in Australia.\u00a0Though time is running out for the seven-time world champion to find a replacement, it\u2019s vital that he makes the right call. After all, the Hamilton-Ferrari partnership, which was touted as the biggest move in the sport\u2019s history, was one of last year\u2019s biggest disappointments<\/a>.\u00a0Off-camera in Barcelona, the Scuderia said \u201cthe matter was in hand,\u201d and there would be \u201ca permanent appointment in place\u201d for the start of the season. Ferrari needs to find someone who can help Hamilton extract the absolute maximum out of the SF-26, but who could it be?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amid rumors that at ex-McLaren man Cedric Michel-Grosjean could be in the frame, we take a look at the runners and riders\u2014and try to judge who\u2019s going to be Hamilton\u2019s new running mate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peter \u201cBono\u201d Bonnington (not happening)\"hamilton<\/p>\n

If Hamilton could handpick Adami\u2019s replacement, he\u2019d probably choose his ex-Mercedes race engineer \u201cBono.\u201d At this point, rival fans are probably bored of hearing \u201cIt\u2019s Hammertime\u201d in the run-up to every pit stop, but the pair formed an iconic pairing, winning six F1 drivers\u2019 titles together.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem for Hamilton is that Mercedes have rewarded Bonnington with a promotion. Now, he\u2019s not only Kimi Antonelli\u2019s race engineer, he\u2019s also head of trackside performance. His seniority means that even if he did miraculously agree to bin a big opportunity at the Silver Arrows, he\u2019d be placed on at least a year\u2019s gardening leave, sidelining him for the foreseeable future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having a trusted ally in the team would be hugely beneficial to Hamilton. But if this move was going to happen, it would\u2019ve been agreed upon 1-2 years ago. Sources inside the paddock say it\u2019s definitely off the cards. It seems like Bono\u2019s staying put, so Ferrari needs to look elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carlo Santi (unlikely)\u00a0\"Carlo-Santi-Hamilton-Ferrari-2026\"\/In the run-up to the Barcelona shakedown<\/a>, it was rumored in the Italian press that Kimi Raikkonen\u2019s former race engineer Carlo Santi would be brought in for the test. As it turns out, Ferrari have also asked teammate Charles Leclerc\u2019s race engineer Bryan Bozzi to help, wing-manning both drivers. As each team can only run one driver at a time anyway, this makes a lot of sense.\u00a0However, if it\u2019s not possible to secure a permanent replacement before Australia, Santi\u2019s name could still be in the frame for a stopgap role. With 15 years\u2019 experience, he\u2019s certainly long enough in the tooth. He\u2019s also dealt with Kimi on the radio, so Lewis should be child\u2019s play!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Should they link up and start building a rapport, Ferrari may decide to keep them together. But even the most optimistic reports say Santi\u2019s role would be temporary. If Ferrari did look internally, they wouldn\u2019t be short of ex-staff to choose from either (who wouldn\u2019t want to see Rob Smedley back), so Santi might not be the pick of the bunch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luca Diella (still possible)\u00a0\"lewisSigned by Ferrari as a performance engineer in 2025, Luca Diella was until fairly recently, the standout favourite. He worked with Hamilton on the power unit side of things at Mercedes from 2019 to 2024, so he\u2019s familiar with the Brit (and operated in a department that will be crucial this year). Better yet, they\u2019re said to have a very good relationship\u2014check, check, check.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Interestingly, if this move did materialize, it would be a near carbon copy of what happened to Leclerc. Frustrated with race engineer Xavi Marco, the Monegasque gave him the boot. Marco has since ended up at Cadillac, with Leclerc bringing in his performance engineer, Bozzi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heading to the Barcelona test, all signs seemed to be pointing to an internal appointment. But the consensus has now shifted to an external candidate: Cedric Michel-Grosjean.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cedric Michel-Grosjean (new favourite)\"Cedric-Michel-Groshean-2026\"\/<\/p>\n

Michel-Grosjean (no relation to his crash-happy namesake) is now widely tipped to be Adami\u2019s successor. The Frenchman (middle of above photo) was McLaren\u2019s lead trackside performance engineer, but Ferrari convinced him to jump ship last year. Reportedly on gardening leave before linking up with the Scuderia, Michel-Grosjean is said to have worked effectively with Oscar Piastri at McLaren.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It would be a major promotion, but there\u2019s a precedent for this kind of move\u2014and Piastri took a big step forward last year, before the wheels fell off his title charge in Baku, at least. The timelines also line up. If Santi and Bozzi can act as caretakers until the end of Michel-Grosjean\u2019s gardening leave, Ferrari will have all the pieces in place to make the change relatively smoothly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, nothing has been confirmed. But Ferrari may be about to pull off a dramatic swoop for one of McLaren\u2019s finest, which could determine the outcome of Lewis Hamilton\u2019s season. (Quotes by SkySports<\/a>)Who should Lewis Hamilton pick as his new race engineer at Ferrari?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1\u00a0has arrived in Barcelona, where teams are shaking down their new challengers. But big questions linger at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[1205,49,48,3025,578,28673,930,576,577,25251,3761,932,590,592,181162,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-436142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-charles-leclerc","12":"tag-f1","13":"tag-f1-news","14":"tag-ferrari","15":"tag-formula-1","16":"tag-formula1","17":"tag-kimi-antonelli","18":"tag-kimi-raikkonen","19":"tag-lewis-hamilton","20":"tag-mclaren","21":"tag-oscar-piastri","22":"tag-rob-smedley","23":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}