F1 News & Gossip

Ferrari to 'raid McLaren' after Lewis Hamilton switch

Chris Deeley Friday 23 January 2026 20:27

Lewis Hamilton in his Ferrari race suit with sunglasses on ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2025

Lewis Hamilton will have a new race engineer in 2026.

This much we know, after Ferrari's announcement earlier this month that Riccardo Adami will move into a position in the team's driver academy. What we don't know is who that race engineer is going to be.

Charles Leclerc's engineer Bryan Bozzi is expected to step into a role with Hamilton during at least some of the upcoming pre-season testing sessions, with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reporting that Kimi Raikonnen's former engineer Carlo Santi will also play a role.

They also claim that the full-time hire they're working on bringing to the team is currently in place at McLaren.

Ferrari legacy at risk?

There's no further indication of who that engineer is, with the report instead going on to reiterate how key it is that Ferrari get their 2026 concept right, with their team's future – and particularly the future of Fred Vasseur – under threat.

It's been a year since seven-time champion Hamilton arrived at Maranello for his first public appearance as a Ferrari driver, with expectations high among the tifosi after a strong end to the 2024 season.

Hamilton, however, failed to record a single grand prix podium all year while team-mate Charles Leclerc went winless for the fourth time in his seven-year Ferrari tenure.

The hope is that giving up on their 2025 season early allowed more development focus to go into moulding the new regulations to the best of their ability. Time will tell.

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