Lewis Hamilton has revealed that his race engineer at the Bahrain test, Carlo Santi, will only stay in the role for a “few races” before he’s replaced by another engineer.
And learning to work with someone else new, again, Hamilton worries, could be “detrimental” to his chances this season.
Is Lewis Hamilton already on the back foot in F1 2026?
After 12 years with Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington as the voice in his ear at Mercedes, Hamilton had to adjust to a new race engineer in Riccardo Adami last year, his first year with Ferrari.
It was anything but a successful partnership as Hamilton was unable to secure a single grand prix podium.
From “tea breaks” to silence, swipes at letting drivers from other teams through, to questions about fairness, Hamilton and Adami could not make it work in their 24 races together, leaving Ferrari to decide that it would be best to separate the two.
The Scuderia announced last month that Hamilton would not continue with Adami, moving the race engineer into a different role within the company.
He has since been replaced by Carlo Santi, an experienced race engineer who worked with Kimi Raikkonen during his second stint at the Maranello team.
Santi, though, won’t be in the role for very long.
Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other media outlets as testing began in Bahrain, Hamilton revealed that Santi would only be in the role for a few races before someone else would take up the role.
That, he believes, could have a negative impact on his season as he just as he begins to get used to Santi, a different race engineer will be the one guiding him on grand prix weekend.
“It is obviously with Riccardo, is obviously a very difficult decision to make,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets during Day One’s testing in Bahrain.
“Really grateful for all the effort he put in last year and his patience, as you know, it was a difficult year for us all.
“It’s actually quite a difficult period, because it’s not long-term. The solution that I currently have, it’s only gonna be a few races.
“So early on into the season, it’s gonna be switching up again, and I’ll have to learn someone to work with someone new. So that’s detrimental to me too.
“A season where you want to arrive with people that have done multiple seasons, that are that have been through thick and thin, and calm.
“But it is the situation that I’m faced with, and I’ll try and do the best I can. We are, I think the team is trying to do the best they can to help seamless as possible.”
Hamilton didn’t reveal who that person was but there’s speculation it could be Oscar Piastri’s former lead trackside performance engineer, Cedric Michel-Grosjean.
Michel-Grosjean added fuel to the fire last month when he liked a liked a post on LinkedIn from Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur speaking about the Ferrari SF-26’s journey.