Lewis Hamilton could face several races without a permanent race engineer

Lewis Hamilton has made a surprising admission that he will start the 2026 F1 season without a permanent race engineer for the opening races.

Hamilton split from Riccardo Adami in January, with Ferrari moving the Italian into a new role within the Ferrari Driver Academy and the team’s Testing of Previous Cars program.

Despite a shakedown and the opening day of pre-season testing in Bahrain already taking place, Ferrari have yet to confirm who will become Hamilton’s long-term race engineer for the new campaign.

In the interim, it has been confirmed Kimi Raikkonen's ex engineer Carlo Santi will be Hamilton's race engineer for the first week in Bahrain and the first few races of the season.

What about Cedric Michel-Grosjean?

"It’s only going to be a few races [that Santi will act as an interim race engineer]. Early on into the season, it’s going to be switching up again, and I’m going to have to learn from someone and work with someone new.

"So that’s detrimental to a season where you want to arrive with people that have done multiple seasons — that have been through thick and thin, and calm.

"But it is the situation that I’m faced with. I’ll try to do the best I can. The team is trying to do the best they can to make it as seamless as possible."

During the Barcelona shakedown, reports claimed that lead trackside performance engineer at McLaren, Cedric Michel-Grosjean was 'Ferrari bound'.

Reports also suggested he was set to become Hamilton's new race engineer, although this has not been confirmed by Ferrari.

According to Michel-Grosjean's LinkedIn, the engineer left McLaren in 2025 and at the top of his experience it currently reads 'Relocation: Career Break' from January 2026.

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