Hamilton reflects on decision to change race engineer

Lewis Hamilton has opened up on the “difficult decision” to part ways with former race engineer Riccardo Adami, with the seven-time World Champion suggesting that not yet having a permanent replacement could be “detrimental” for him.

Following Hamilton’s first season at Ferrari it was confirmed that Adami would move to a role within the team’s academy, meaning that Hamilton will work with a new race engineer.

Carlo Santi – who formerly worked with Kimi Raikkonen during the Finn’s time with the Scuderia and was active at the remote garage – has since replaced Adami in the role but Hamilton has indicated that this may only be an interim measure.

Whilst speaking to media including F1.com during official pre-season testing in Bahrain, Hamilton was asked how the changes that had been made to his team over the winter were unfolding and whether he would have preferred to have a permanent race engineer in place before the season.

“Firstly, with Riccardo it was a pretty difficult decision to make, and I’m really, really grateful for all the effort he put in last year, and his patience – it was a difficult year for us all,” the 41-year-old explained.

“It’s actually quite a difficult era, because it’s not long-term, the solution that I currently have – it’s only a few races, and so early on into the season it’s going to all be switching up again and I’ll have to learn to work with someone new.

“So that’s detrimental for me too, [going into] a season where you want to arrive with people that have done multiple seasons, that have been through thick and thin, and I can’t.

“But it is the situation that I’m faced with, and I’ll try and do the best that I can. The team is trying to do the best they can to make it as seamless as possible.”

Following the two official pre-season tests in Bahrain – held across February 11-13 and February 18-20 – the first race of the campaign, the Australian Grand Prix, takes place on March 6-8.