Lewis Hamilton’s anticipated race engineer change at Scuderia Ferrari has been postponed for at least another round of the 2026 Formula 1 season, extending a transitional period within the seven-time world champion’s technical team.
Hamilton partnered with Riccardo Adami during his debut campaign with Ferrari in 2025. However, despite high expectations surrounding the collaboration, the working relationship did not fully flourish. Ahead of the 2026 season, it was confirmed that Adami would step aside from the race engineer role as Ferrari sought to refine its communication structure and optimize Hamilton’s on-track performance.
Stepping in on an interim basis has been Ferrari’s head of remote engineering, Carlo Santi. Santi has served as Hamilton’s race engineer through the opening three race weekends of the current campaign, providing continuity while the team finalizes a longer-term solution.
That permanent appointment is widely expected to be Cedric Michel-Grosjean, formerly of McLaren. However, his arrival has been delayed due to gardening leave following his departure from the Woking-based outfit at the end of 2025. As a result, Ferrari must wait before integrating him fully into its race operations.
Michel-Grosjean brings extensive experience, having spent nine years at McLaren in a variety of performance-focused roles. For much of his tenure, he operated as a trackside car performance engineer, playing a key role in extracting maximum pace from the car package. In June 2023, he began working more closely with Oscar Piastri, and by January 2025 he had been promoted to lead trackside performance engineer. In that capacity, he oversaw car performance optimization and supported driver development across all race and test events throughout the season.
Speculation regarding his move to Ferrari intensified when Michel-Grosjean referenced a “career break” on LinkedIn—widely interpreted as the standard gardening leave period that often accompanies high-profile technical transfers in Formula 1.
Despite the delayed transition, Hamilton’s form in 2026 has shown clear improvement. After enduring a podium-less 2025 season, he has already secured a grand prix podium this year, signaling stronger integration with Ferrari’s evolving package. The Scuderia currently appears to be the second-fastest team on the grid, trailing only Mercedes in outright performance.
With momentum building, Hamilton’s pursuit of a maiden Ferrari grand prix victory continues. Once the engineering structure is fully settled, the Briton and Ferrari will hope that enhanced technical synergy can convert promising pace into consistent race-winning results.