Lewis Hamilton smiling at the Qatar Grand Prix — Photo: © IMAGO

Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari F1 race engineer 'announced'

Lewis Hamilton will not work with Riccardo Adami in 2026

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 20 January 2026 21:00

Following the announcement that Riccardo Adami had been removed from his position, Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari F1 race engineer for pre-season testing has been decided upon by the team, according to Italian media.

Adami was axed from his role last week having spent the full 2025 season alongside Hamilton as his race engineer.

There were plenty of awkward moments on team radio between the pair during the course of last season, and Ferrari have opted to switch it up.

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Last week's announcement included the fact that Adami would be moving on to a different role within the Ferrari team, taking up a position as Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy manager and testing of previous cars (TPC) manager.

This has left Hamilton without a race engineer for 2026, and as Ferrari work to find a permanent replacement for Adami, a report from Corriere Della Sera has confirmed who will take on the role at the upcoming pre-season testing event in Barcelona.

And the above publication has suggested that Charles Leclerc's race engineer Bryan Bozzi will take responsibility for both drivers during this testing event, with there only set to be one SF-26 split between Hamilton and Leclerc present for the duration of the test.

Why was Adami axed as Hamilton's race engineer?

While Ferrari did not give a specific reason for Adami's axing, the disagreements between Hamilton and the Italian on team radio in 2025 were clear for all to hear.

At the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton seemed bemused by a lack of information coming from Adami, while the Miami GP saw Hamilton tell the team through Adami to 'have a cup of tea' after he was angered by the fact that he wasn't being let through by Charles Leclerc.

Then came the Monaco GP, when it had appeared as though Adami had blanked Hamilton when the Brit had asked 'Are you annoyed at me?' However, that was later cleared up with Ferrari suggesting that Adami had already left the pit wall at that stage.

Even as late on as the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP there was an awkward moment, when Hamilton appeared to be blanked by Adami when talking about the season as a whole. Adami did apologise for this and said that he had been talking with team members on the pit wall.

These moments led to suggestions that they had not gelled particularly well together since Hamilton joined the team in January last year, and the removal of Adami from his position ahead of 2026 might be more clear evidence of this.

Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Riccardo Adami Bryan Bozzi