{"id":38604,"date":"2026-01-17T04:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=38604"},"modified":"2026-01-17T04:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:34:14","slug":"hamilton-to-be-assigned-new-race-engineer-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2026\/01\/17\/hamilton-to-be-assigned-new-race-engineer-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton to be assigned new race engineer for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been no shortage of coverage about Lewis Hamilton’s difficulties<\/a> at Ferrari . The 7-time World Champion’s time with the Scuderia is yet to generate the results that both parties were hoping for.<\/p>\n

When Hamilton stepped through the doors of Maranello, there was no question there would be an adaptation phase.<\/p>\n

However, team principal Fred Vasseur<\/a> argues that Ferrari underestimated how steep the learning curve would be.<\/p>\n

After one season together, this blockbuster partnership is making adjustments. One of the most notable changes for 2026 will be Hamilton’s new race engineer, with Riccardo Adami (who formerly occupied this role) assigned to another part of the team.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p><\/p>\n

Ferrari respond to Hamilton’s tricky 2025 adaptation<\/h2>\n

Whilst all teams face scrutiny, the pressure on Ferrari to perform is unique. Owing to a combination of factors, there is nowhere for the Italian outfit to hide when an F1 season commences.<\/p>\n

The addition of Lewis Hamilton, alongside growing frustrations that Charles Leclerc<\/a> is yet to drive a title-winning car, only heightened these expectations last season.<\/p>\n

Even before 2025, there are certain themes and narratives associated with Ferrari. Perhaps the most notable concerns the team’s strategy, which is widely regarded as being inferior to the decision-making at Red Bull<\/a> or Mercedes.<\/p>\n

The Scuderia’s team radio messages are often a big talking point, and last year was no exception. There were a few occasions throughout the season when Hamilton and race engineer Riccardo Adami were not on the same wavelength.<\/p>\n

Of course, miscommunications between drivers and engineer happen regularly. In this case, however, there was a growing sense that a new race engineer was necessary to improve Hamilton’s integration.<\/p>\n

As reported previously by LWOS<\/a>, the team began considering whether to change race engineers at the start of the winter break.<\/p>\n

With the 2026 season ever-closer, it is now confirmed that someone new has been assigned to Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p><\/p>\n

Vasseur hopes to learn from past mistakes<\/h4>\n

Fred Vasseur was integral in signing Hamilton to Ferrari. The Frenchman’s strong relationship with the 40-year-old helped persuade him to leave Mercedes<\/a> and get the deal over the line.<\/p>\n

Because of this, Vasseur has an additional incentive to get the 7-time Champion firing on all cylinders.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2025, the Ferrari team principal admitted to some of the problems that emerged last year:<\/p>\n

“We had lots of discussions internally, and with Lewis also about this, to understand where we missed the path of the season. <\/em><\/p>\n

“For me, I underestimated the challenge for Lewis, the challenge to change from Mercedes to Ferrari.<\/em><\/p>\n

“He spent 20 years with Mercedes… and then he moved to Ferrari, where everything is different. It’s not just about the weather and the food. It’s about people around him, it’s the language, it’s about the name of the software, the name of the components on the car \u2013 everything.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It means that as soon as you are missing something, if you leave one tenth of a second on the table because you are not in control of everything. Today, one tenth of a second is five tenths position.<\/em><\/p>\n

“At the end of the day it’s a matter of details, but details are the essence of the sport, and it’s where we have to put more… not focus, because the focus was there, but we have the experience of this, and we have to do a better job on every single detail.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Main photo: Ferrari Media Gallery<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been no shortage of coverage about Lewis Hamilton’s difficulties at Ferrari . The 7-time World Champion’s time with the Scuderia is yet to generate the results that both parties were hoping for. When Hamilton stepped through the doors of Maranello, there was no question there would be an adaptation phase. However, team principal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":38605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2582,84,76,2591],"class_list":["post-38604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2026-season","tag-ferrari","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-sf-26"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38606,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38604\/revisions\/38606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}