Who is Carlo Santi? Meet Lewis Hamilton’s temporary Ferrari race engineer
Carlo Santi is to act as Lewis Hamilton's race engineer for the first few races of F1 2026
Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton has a stand-in race engineer at the start of the F1 2026 season in the form of the experienced Carlo Santi.
Who exactly is Santi? Here’s all you need to know about the temporary voice in Hamilton’s ear…
F1 2026 explained: Lewis Hamilton’s stand-in race engineer Carlo Santi
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Santi was born in Verona, Italy, in February 1954.
After graduating from Milan Polytechnic where he studied mechanical engineering and specialised in land vehicles, Santi accepted a scholarship for a project at the Fiat Research Centre in Turin before joining Ferrari’s vehicle dynamics department.
Five years later, he had his first experience of working in motorsport when he joined the endurance team as a performance engineer.
Santi eventually joined the Ferrari Formula 1 team as a model engineer for the Scuderia’s first-ever driver-in-the-loop simulator.
He was a relatively unknown figure to the outside world until he became the performance engineer for 2007 world champion Kimi Räikkönen, still Ferrari’s most recent title winner, during the Finn’s second spell at Ferrari.
After holding the role of performance engineer throughout 2016 and 2017, Santi replaced Dave Greenwood as Raikkonen’s race engineer for 2018.
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That proved to be the final season at Ferrari for Raikkonen, who finished third in the drivers’ standings – behind world champion Hamilton and then-Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel – with 12 podium finishes from 21 races.
That year also saw Raikkonen collect his final F1 victory in the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, where Santi joined his driver on the podium.
Raikkonen was replaced by Charles Leclerc at Ferrari for 2019 following an impressive debut season for the Monegasque at Sauber the previous season.
With Xavier Marcos Padros named as Leclerc’s race engineer, Santi moved to a factory-based role and supported Ferrari’s race operations from a so-called ‘remote garage’ in Maranello on race weekends.
Asked to describe his role as performance engineer in 2025, Santi told Ferrari’s official website: “We can provide live support and even act as a back-up for the performance engineers at the track.
“This can be for routine matters or for critical ones that can arise during an event.
“As a general rule, in the remote garage we tend to focus on the medium to long-term activities that involve several departments, whereas at the track, the main focus is on strictly operational aspects.”
He added: “Fifteen years on [from my first role at Ferrari], after working across driving simulation, vehicle dynamics, race engineering and vehicle performance, I’m still here, suffering when things don’t go well and rejoicing after every win.”
Why is Carlo Santi working with Lewis Hamilton?
Santi’s return to the pit wall is understood to be a temporary measure ahead of the arrival of Hamilton’s new permanent race engineer.
In his first season with Ferrari in 2025, Hamilton was managed by Riccardo Adami, who previously served as race engineer to Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz.
The 2025 season proved to be the worst of Hamilton’s career as he failed to register a podium finish across a campaign for the first time.
Hamilton’s season was defined by a number of awkward and tense exchanges with Adami over team radio.
One such interaction occurred at the Miami Grand Prix, where Hamilton suggested the pit wall should “have a tea break while you’re at it” as Ferrari dithered over a team orders decision.
A few weeks later in Monaco, a clip went viral after Hamilton was heard asking Adami on the cooldown lap: “Are you upset with me or something?”
Hamilton received no reply, although it is believed that Adami had already disconnected from the team radio system following the end of the race.
Ferrari announced on January 16 that Hamilton will work with a new race engineer in the 2026 season after Adami was moved to a new role within the organisation.
Adami’s revised position will see him work with Ferrari’s junior driver scheme as well as the team’s TPC [Testing of Previous Car] operation.
Ferrari’s announcement arrived just 10 days before the start of the first pre-season test of the F1 2026 season in Bahrain, bringing the need for a stop-gap appointment.
Widespread reports since have claimed that Ferrari has identified Cedric Michel-Grosjean as Hamilton’s new permanent race engineer.
Michel-Grosjean previously served as Oscar Piastri’s trackside performance engineer at McLaren before leaving the reigning constructors’ champions at the end of 2025.
How long will Carlo Santi work as Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer?
It is unclear how long Santi will work as Hamilton’s engineer, but he is set to start the new season on the pit wall.
Hamilton confirmed at the second pre-season test in Bahrain that the identity of his race engineer would change again after “a few races” of the new season.
He also warned that the disruption on his side of the garage could prove “detrimental” to his 2026 season.
Addressing his split with Adami for the first time, he told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets: “With Riccardo, it’s obviously a very difficult decision to make.
“I’m really grateful for all the effort he put in last year and his patience. It was a difficult year for us all.
“It’s actually quite a difficult period because it’s not long term. The solution that I currently have, it’s only going to be a few races.
“So early on into the season, it’s going to be switching up again and I’ll have to learn someone to work with someone new, so that’s detrimental to me too.
“A season where you want to arrive with people that have done multiple seasons, that have been through thick and thin and are calm.
“But it is the situation that I’m faced with and I’ll try and do the best I can.
“I think the team is trying to do the best they can to help make it as seamless as possible.”
If Michel-Grosjean is indeed the man on Ferrari’s radar, it is unclear when exactly he will be free to start work at Maranello.
According to his LinkedIn profile, the former McLaren engineer is currently on a career break ahead of taking up his next role.
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