Ferrari is reshaping the team around Lewis Hamilton after a bruising first year together. The Scuderia has moved Riccardo Adami, Hamilton’s 2025 race engineer, into a new role at the Ferrari Driver Academy, where he will lead testing of previous cars and help develop young talent. That means Hamilton will have a new, yet-to-be-named voice on the radio when the 2026 season begins.

It’s a big call after a season in which Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, went winless and podium-less, while Charles Leclerc set the pace in red. Ferrari insists the change is strategic, not dramatic—but it’s impossible to ignore the timing, the optics, and the opportunity.

Why Ferrari is reshaping Hamilton’s race engineer team

Adami’s reassignment is framed as a promotion into a vital development role. Ferrari said his "extensive trackside experience and Formula 1 expertise" will now strengthen performance culture in the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy, and he will run the Test Previous Cars program. In short: he’ll pass on what he knows to the next wave.

At the same time, Ferrari confirmed a new race engineer for car #44 will be announced "in due course." The team did not say if it will promote from within or recruit from outside. Either way, it’s a fresh start for Hamilton’s trackside unit.

"Is this the reset Hamilton needs or a sign Ferrari blinked?"

The Hamilton–Adami 2025 season by the numbers

On paper, 2025 hurt. Hamilton did not win a single Grand Prix and did not score a podium. He did, however, claim a Sprint victory during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend—a reminder that raw pace and racecraft remain.

Leclerc, meanwhile, had the upper hand across the year. He finished 84 points ahead in the Drivers’ standings and outqualified Hamilton 19 times in 24 appearances. Other tallies put the final championship gap at 86 points. In a team as sharp as Ferrari, that kind of gap is fuel for change.

Complicating matters, the world heard many of the rough edges. Radio messages between Hamilton and Adami became a talking point from Australia to Abu Dhabi. In his debut Ferrari race in Melbourne, Hamilton asked to "leave me to it" at a key moment. Later, in Miami, he snapped that the team had taken "a tea break" as Leclerc’s strategy unfolded. After criticism about the tone of their exchanges, Hamilton pushed back: "go and listen to the radio calls with others and their engineers, they’re far worse."

Ferrari’s head of track engineering, Matteo Togninalli, also tried to cool the noise, saying during the Qatar weekend that "what you see from outside is worse" than the reality of their collaboration. But perception matters in F1. And so does trust in the voice on the other end of the line.

"Leclerc beat him on Saturdays and Sundays — that has to change."

Who replaces Riccardo Adami on car #44?

Ferrari has not named the successor. The team could elevate an experienced performance engineer from within, or look outside Maranello for a fresh voice. Either path is on the table.

One thing is set: Peter "Bono" Bonnington, Hamilton’s long-time race engineer at Mercedes, did not follow him to Italy and remains with Mercedes in 2026. That means Ferrari must build a new dynamic with Hamilton from the ground up—new cues, new rhythms, new trust.

What the new Ferrari race engineer must deliver

Three things will define the partnership from day one:

• Clear, calm radio: A race engineer must filter chaos into simple calls. The best pairings speak in short code under pressure.
• Sharp strategy feedback: Hamilton thrives when he gets timely tyre, pace, and rival updates he believes in.
• Qualifying focus: Leclerc’s 19–5 Saturday edge was decisive. Better Saturdays make easier Sundays.

With pre-season testing split between Bahrain (Feb 11–13) and Japan (Feb 18–20), there’s a tight runway to calibrate. The green lights in Melbourne on March 6 will come fast.

"If Bono isn’t coming, Ferrari must build the next Bono fast."

Riccardo Adami’s Ferrari legacy and new mission

Adami is steeped in experience. He engineered Sebastian Vettel at Toro Rosso and later at Ferrari, worked with Carlos Sainz at Ferrari, and earlier partnered with Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastien Buemi, and Vitantonio Liuzzi at Toro Rosso in the early 2000s. He joined Ferrari in 2015 and brings that long track education to the Academy.

In his new Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy and Test Previous Cars Manager role, Adami will guide young drivers through structured test programs in previous F1 machinery. That means more seat time for prospects and a stronger pipeline to the senior team. Ferrari thanked him for his "commitment and contribution" and stressed how his know-how will "strengthen performance culture across the program."

The big picture for Ferrari and Hamilton

This move signals Ferrari’s willingness to act after a hard year, without blowing up the project. Adami stays in the family and in a high-value role; Hamilton gets a clean slate on the pit wall. It acknowledges the 2025 shortfall while setting a different tone for 2026.

Will a new voice unlock the old Lewis? That rests on chemistry as much as car performance. The ingredients are simple to list and hard to master: trust, timing, and tempo. If Ferrari nails those, Hamilton’s Sunday ceiling lifts quickly. If not, the red radio will stay the loudest sound in F1.

For now, the clock is ticking to Bahrain and Japan, then Melbourne. The headset is open. The most important hire in Hamilton’s Ferrari chapter is still to come.