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<\/p>\nSAKHIR, Bahrain \u2014 Ferrari is yet to finalize a long-term replacement for Lewis Hamilton\u2019s Formula 1 race engineer, with the Briton revealing he expects another change a few races into the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Ferrari announced last month that Hamilton\u2019s race engineer for 2025, Riccardo Adami, had been moved into a new role in the company.<\/p>\n
The decision came after Hamilton had moments of friction with Adami over their team radio through Hamilton\u2019s first season with Ferrari. In 2025, both Hamilton and his team downplayed the issues.<\/p>\n
When announcing Adami\u2019s move in January, Ferrari said that Hamilton\u2019s new race engineer would be named \u201cin due course.\u201d But under a month until the 2026 begins on Mar. 8 in Australia, the Italian team is yet to announce a full-time replacement for this season.<\/p>\n
Through the first 2026 preseason test \u2014 held in Barcelona at the end of January \u2014 and for the second test in Bahrain that started on Wednesday, Hamilton has been working with Carlo Santi. He previously worked as a race engineer at Ferrari, with 2007 world champion Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters in Bahrain on Wednesday, Hamilton said he was \u201creally grateful\u201d to Adami for his work. He called moving the Italian engineer aside ahead of 2026 \u201ca very difficult decision to make,\u201d before revealing that a final decision on Adami\u2019s permanent replacement has not been taken.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually quite a difficult period, because it\u2019s not long-term, the solution that we currently have,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s only going to be a few races (that Santi will act as an interim race engineer). Early on into the season, it\u2019s going to be switching up again, and I\u2019m going to have to learn from someone and work with someone new.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s detrimental to a season where you want to arrive with people that have done multiple seasons \u2014 that have been through thick and thin, and calm.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it is the situation that I\u2019m faced with. I\u2019ll try to do the best I can. The team is trying to do the best they can to make it as seamless as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Santi worked with R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen initially as a data engineer before becoming his race engineer in 2018. The Finn scored his 21st and final grand prix win that year, which also turned out to be his last season with Ferrari, as he was replaced by Charles Leclerc for 2019. Since then, Santi has worked at Ferrari\u2019s factory on race weekends to support its race team virtually.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Carlo Santi, second left, on the podium at the 2018 United States Grand Prix, is acting as Lewis Hamilton\u2019s interim race engineer in 2026. (Mark Thompson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Discussions are ongoing to finalize a long-term replacement for Hamilton on Ferrari\u2019s pit wall, as the team continues to evaluate who will fill the race engineer position in collaboration with the seven-time world champion.<\/p>\n
The race engineer serves as the primary point of contact for a driver throughout a race. Through his 12-year stint at Mercedes, Hamilton forged a close relationship with Peter Bonnington, even likening his race engineer to a brother after they won six world championships together.<\/p>\n
But Bonnington did not follow Hamilton to Ferrari in 2025, and now works with Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes, while also acting as the team\u2019s head of race engineering.<\/p>\n
Hamilton enters the 2026 campaign looking to bounce back after a difficult first year with Ferrari, in which he failed to score a single podium finish all season for the first time in his F1 career.<\/p>\n
After getting a first extended run-out in the team\u2019s new car through the Barcelona test, Hamilton was back behind the wheel of the SF-26 on Wednesday morning in Bahrain. He completed 52 laps before handing over testing duties to Leclerc.<\/p>\n
Hamilton traveled to Bahrain after attending Super Bowl LX on Sunday night, where Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 29-13.<\/p>\n
Hamilton, who is a part owner of the Denver Broncos, said: \u201cThe actual game wasn\u2019t great. I much prefer the Broncos\u2019 stadium, and I was sad my team wasn\u2019t there, but next year (hopefully it will be).\u201d<\/p>\n
He also spoke about the half time show performance by Bad Bunny, which Hamilton said gave him \u201cgoosebumps.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a music fan, and if you take a moment to understand all the small little bits of history that he included in the performance, it was so well thought out,\u201d said Hamilton.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such a divided time. I saw the Grenadian flag, he had flags of all the other (countries) and parts of the United States, saying that we\u2019re all one. I thought it was really great messaging, and I don\u2019t think anybody I\u2019ve ever watched and seen do the half time show has ever done that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton was also spotted sitting with Kim Kardashian at the game after it was rumored they could be dating. He declined to talk about the subject on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t comment on those sorts of things,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cThat\u2019s private life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAKHIR, Bahrain \u2014 Ferrari is yet to finalize a long-term replacement for Lewis Hamilton\u2019s Formula 1 race engineer,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,12716,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-468441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-motorsports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468441","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=468441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}