Martin Brundle’s 2025 Hamilton critique resurfaces amid Ferrari race engineer changes
Riccardo Adami has been moved to a new role for 2026 after failing to get with Lewis Hamilton
Martin Brundle claimed that Lewis Hamilton “terribly missed” a trusted voice by his side during his first season with Ferrari in 2025.
The Sky F1 pundit’s comments have resurfaced after Ferrari announced that Hamilton will work with a new race engineer for the F1 2026 season.
Martin Brundle: Lewis Hamilton missing close confidante at Ferrari
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Ferrari confirmed on Friday that Hamilton’s 2025 race engineer, Riccardo Adami, is to take on a new role within the organisation ahead of the new campaign.
Adami is to work with the team’s junior driver scheme as well as managing the team’s TPC [Testing of Previous Car] efforts.
Ferrari confirmed that Hamilton’s new race engineer for 2026 will be decided “in due course” with the team unable to confirm whether Adami’s successor will be an internal promotion or an external hire.
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Hamilton and Adami struggled to gel over the course of last season with the pair heard having a number of tense and awkward exchanges over team radio.
Hamilton lost his cool with the pit wall when Ferrari imposed team orders during the Miami Grand Prix, suggesting sarcastically that the team should have a “tea break” as it dithered on a decision.
He was also heard asking if Adami was “upset with me” after the chequered flag in Monaco just weeks later.
Hamilton’s move to Ferrari saw him work with a new race engineer after establishing a close bond with Peter Bonnington during his Mercedes career.
As revealed by PlanetF1.com in early 2024, a so-called ‘no-poaching’ clause in his contract prevented Hamilton from having direct involvement in persuading Mercedes staff to follow him to Ferrari for 2025.
Bonnington was promoted to head of race engineering at Mercedes in 2024 and continues to act as race engineer to Kimi Antonelli.
Brundle highlighted the absence of a trusted voice by his side at Ferrari as a big problem for Hamilton in 2025, pointing to the success of Michael Schumacher and close ally Ross Brawn at the Scuderia in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Discussing the bond between Red Bull driver Max Verstappen and his race engineer, GianPiero Lambiase, Brundle told Sky F1: “They know how each other thinks.
“GP Lambiase translates what Max wants. Max gets quite vociferous about that on a Friday sometimes
“I think, for example, that’s what Lewis has missed terribly going to Ferrari – somebody who understands what they’re saying, what they need, all the little nuances.
“And also, a bit like Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher were able to do, GP and the strategists [tell] Max: ‘Go fast, go slow.’
“Whatever they need Max to do, they know he will deliver it flawlessly.”
Hamilton seemingly left the door open to potential changes to his inner circle at the final round of the F1 2025 season in Abu Dhabi.
Asked what he needed to happen over the winter to enter 2026 with confidence, he told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets: “I think we just need to analyse where we’ve been, what’s been good, areas that we can improve on.
“I’ve highlighted, and I know where they all are. It’s sitting down with the team at the end of the year.
“I’ll look internally at my personal team, away from the track, and see what we can do more to make more efficient with the timing and traveling and all these different things.
“I’ll do the same with the team.”
Hamilton hinted at changes for 2026 with a cryptic social media post to mark his 41st birthday earlier this month.
He said: “The time for change is now. Starting new routines, leaving behind unwanted patterns and working on growth.
“Let go of things that don’t serve you.
“This can take time, there will be things you can’t get rid of immediately, but it starts with the first step.”
Additional reporting by Mat Coch and Thomas Maher
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