Lewis Hamilton’s new race engineer finally confirmed in Ferrari statement

Michelle Foster
Lewis Hamilton drives the Ferrari SF-23 with his '44' on display

Lewis Hamilton drives the Ferrari SF-23 with his '44' on display

Ferrari have officially confirmed Riccardo Adami as Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer for his debut campaign with the Scuderia.

After over a decade of having Pete ‘Bono’ Bonnington in his ear during Grand Prix weekends, there’s a new voice speaking to Hamilton this season.

Riccardo Adami replaces ‘Bono’ as the voice in Lewis Hamilton’s ear

Although it had been speculated for some time that Adami would get the role given Hamilton was replacing Carlos Sainz for the F1 2025 season, it wasn’t confirmed by Ferrari until the Briton’s first day on track in an SF-23 on Wednesday.

The seven-time World Champion’s first week as a Ferrari has dominated the news cycle, culminating in his debut test with the Italian stable.

Hamilton put in the laps at the Fiorano circuit, Ferrari’s private test track, in misty conditions on Wednesday morning when he covered 30 laps under the watchful eye of his new race engineer Adami.

Ferrari confirmed the Italian’s role in a post-session press release as they revealed that back in the pits, Hamilton was ‘speaking to his race engineer Riccardo Adami over the radio’.

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Adami has been in Formula 1 for more than two decades having started his career with Minardi as a data analysis engineer in 2002 before being promoted to race engineer three years later.

He continued in that role after the team was sold to Red Bull and rebranded Toro Rosso, working with several drivers including Sebastian Vettel.

When Vettel, having stepped up from Toro Rosso to Red Bull, swapped to Ferrari in 2015, Adami reunited with him in Maranello and was his race engineer throughout his six years at Ferrari. More recently the 51-year-old worked with Sainz.

According to the Italian publication Corriere dello Sport, to ‘prepare for his first day at Ferrari and compare notes, Lewis called Vettel on the phone in recent weeks’ with working with Adami one of the topics.

Vettel has in the past been very complimentary of Adami, saying: “We’ve known each other forever and he’s a friend. He’s one of those who represents the values ​​of Ferrari, if the brand is unique it’s because there are people like that in Maranello.”

Ferrari did not reveal many details about Hamilton and Adami’s first day at the track together, but the Briton did reflect on it as he described his first laps in a Ferrari F1 car as “one of the best feelings of my life”.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have many firsts in my career,” he said, “from the first test to the first race, podium, win and championship, so I wasn’t sure how many more firsts I had but driving a Scuderia Ferrari HP car for the first time this morning, was one of the best feelings of my life.

“When I started the car up and drove through that garage door, I had the biggest smile on my face. It reminded me of the very first time I tested a Formula 1 car, it was such an exciting and special moment, and here I am, almost twenty years later, feeling those emotions all over again.

“I already knew from the outside how passionate the Ferrari family is, from everyone in the team to the Tifosi! But to now witness it firsthand as a Ferrari driver has been awe-inspiring.

“That passion runs through their veins and you can’t help but be energised by it.

“I’m so grateful for the love I have felt from everyone in Maranello this week, we have a lot of work to do but I can’t wait to get started.”

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