Lewis Hamilton never really warmed up to his Ferrari racing engineer Riccardo Adami in 2025. Reports kept making the rounds that the two didn’t understand each other. It is now clear: Adami will no longer be Hamilton’s “man in the ear” next season. The Scuderia praises the Italian.
Riccardo Adami is no longer Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer in Formula 1 at Ferrari. The racing team from Maranello announced this.
Instead, Adami is taking on another role at Ferrari, including acting as manager of the Reds’ youth academy.
“In this role, he brings his extensive track experience and Formula 1 expertise to support the development of future talent and further strengthen the performance culture within the program,” Ferrari writes in its official communiqué.
Who will support Hamilton as a race engineer in 2026 will be “announced in due course”.
Formula 1: There are always arguments between Hamilton and Ferrari
The Brit had a bitter first year with Ferrari in the previous season. In the Drivers’ World Championship, Hamilton only finished sixth, didn’t even make it onto the podium and came under heavy pressure in the intra-stable duel with Charles Leclerc.
Over the course of the season, the 41-year-old record world champion repeatedly pointed out communication problems between himself and the team that made life difficult for him.
Adami had spoken on the radio several times – such as at the Grand Prix in Miami. “Take a tea break while it’s your turn. Come on!” the Englishman said in his engineer’s ear during the race.
Hamilton was annoyed that the Scuderia didn’t immediately guide him past stable rival Charles Leclerc towards the middle of the race, even though he had the faster tires.
Video: Perez: Verstappen’s character “a problem”
When he was then allowed to overtake and enjoy free travel, he was unable to pull away and later had to give way to the Monegasque. “Should I let him through too,” said Hamilton shortly afterwards, when poor Adami radioed him about his lead over Williams driver Sainz. British sarcasm met Italian pride. This didn’t go down well in Italy.
Now Adami, who used to be Sebastian Vettel’s race engineer, no longer has to worry about this sort of thing.
