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A new race whisperer for Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari driver to get different race engineer for radio messages

The testy radio conversations between Hamilton and Adami had made headlines during the British driver's disappointing 2025 season, where the British driver did not finish on the podium in a grand prix all year

2 min readJan 17, 2026 03:57 PM IST

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain reacts after the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

After a turbulent year in the wheel for Ferrari, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton will have a new race engineer that communicated with him over the radio from the paddock during races this season. Riccardo Adami, Hamilton’s race engineer last season, was moved to another role with Ferrari.

The testy radio conversations between Hamilton and Adami had made headlines during the British driver’s disappointing 2025 season. The terse on-air exchanges also coincided with Hamilton not finishing on the podium in a grand prix all year—which was the first time in his career that the Brit had not finished on podium at least once—in his first season at Ferrari following a blockbuster move from Mercedes.

Race engineers are the ones that speak to drivers while they’re racing, to inform them of race incidents, car setup and strategy.

Ahead of the start of preseason testing this month, the Italian team said Adami, who also worked as Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz’s engineer previously, would work with its driver academy and oversee test runs in older F1 cars, without naming a replacement.

A statement released by the Italian team read: “Scuderia Ferrari HP announces that Riccardo Adami has moved to a new role within the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy as Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy and Test Previous Cars Manager, where his extensive trackside experience and Formula 1 expertise contributes to the development of future talent and to strengthening performance culture across the program. Scuderia Ferrari HP would like to thank Riccardo for his commitment and contribution to his trackside role and wishes him every success in his new position. The appointment of the new Race Engineer for car #44 will be announced in due course.”

In their first race together at the Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton asked Adami to “leave me to it” because he felt he was being distracted with information he didn’t need. At the Miami Grand Prix in May, Hamilton questioned whether the team might have a “tea break” as Ferrari took its time deciding on strategy. In Monaco, Hamilton asked if Adami was upset with him and seemed not to get a reply.