Ferrari principal advises media to move on from Hamilton’s engineer situation
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has urged journalists to move on from questions surrounding Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer situation ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 season, reports BritPanorama.
The plea followed concerns raised by the seven-time world champion during last week’s Bahrain test about the implications of changing his race engineer mid-season, potentially affecting his title prospects.
“Please stop with this story!” Vasseur snapped when faced with another query regarding Hamilton’s situation.
Hamilton, who recently had a challenging debut year at Ferrari in 2025—marks the first season in which he did not secure a podium finish—had previously noted that his race engineer would likely change within “a few races” of the season’s start, warning that disruption could be “detrimental” to his performance while vowing to “try and do the best I can.”
This decision to change engineers follows a series of uncomfortable exchanges between Hamilton and his engineer, Riccardo Adami, throughout the previous season. In February, Ferrari confirmed that Hamilton would be assigned a different engineer for 2026, with Adami transitioning to another position within the team.
Cedric Michel-Grosjean, previously Oscar Piastri’s trackside performance engineer at McLaren, is expected to take on Hamilton’s race engineer role. Michel-Grosjean, who left McLaren at the end of the last season, is currently on a career break, suggesting that his entry into Ferrari may be delayed by several weeks.
In the interim, Carlo Santi, who has experience working alongside Kimi Raikkonen, is overseeing Hamilton during testing sessions. Hamilton’s early acknowledgment of the impending engineer change led some critics to suggest he was preparing excuses following a disappointing campaign.
Vasseur countered these assumptions, stating, “It’s not exactly the discussion that we had,” and emphasized the positive working relationship between Hamilton and the pit wall crew, portraying the driver as “high in confidence and very open to the relationship.”
He also remarked that personnel changes are not unusual in Formula 1, highlighting that approximately six or seven engineers switch roles annually among the 22 cars, along with three or four changes in team principal positions each year. “The team today is something like 1,500 people. It’s not about one race engineer,” he asserted.
“In F1, it’s always about the team. It’s never about an individual,” Vasseur concluded, with the first race of the new season set to occur in Melbourne on March 8.
