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Ferrari have secured the signature of Lewis Hamilton’s new race engineer for the 2026 F1 season, yet when Riccardo Adami’s replacement heads to Maranello is still unclear.
The Scuderia announced earlier in January that Adami has moved to a new role within their Formula 1 operations, after failing to build a rapport with Hamilton in 2025. Adami will now oversee the Ferrari Driver Academy and also their testing of previous cars (TPC) programme.
Adami never understood Hamilton’s need for emotional support, which led to a number of tense exchanges over the team’s radio last term. Most notably, Hamilton accused Adami of having “a tea break” in Miami after Ferrari dithered over using team orders during the race.
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Ferrari have signed Cedric Michel-Grosjean to be Lewis Hamilton’s new race engineer
Ferrari quickly ruled out reuniting Hamilton with Peter Bonnington after Adami changed his roles, as they accepted it would be impossible to prise the British engineer from Mercedes. Instead, Ferrari have signed Cedric Michel-Grosjean to be Hamilton’s new engineer in 2026.
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That is according to a report from Formula1.it, which claims ‘sources’ close to the Scuderia have confirmed that Michel-Grosjean has already signed for Ferrari after he left McLaren in December. But Ferrari do not have an agreement with McLaren to end his gardening leave.
Michel-Grosjean is ready to take up his new role by Hamilton’s side once McLaren free him to begin working with Ferrari. He would even be prepared to start working with the seven-time F1 champion in time for the first round of the 2026 season in Australia on March 6-8.
McLaren are not the only hurdle in Ferrari’s way to putting everything in place for Hamilton to bounce back from the worst year of his F1 career to date, though. Given the time Michel-Grosjean and Hamilton will need to build their relationship, Ferrari have an interim solution.
Carlo Santi, who previously worked with Kimi Raikkonen, has agreed to serve as an interim race engineer for Hamilton until Michel-Grosjean, who worked closely with Oscar Piastri in 2025, is allowed to join. But Santi has told Ferrari that he will only do so for three rounds.
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Cedric Michel-Grosjean looks set to be Riccardo Adami’s replacement
Ferrari could convince Santi to extend his transitional phase and help Michel-Grosjean settle into his new role in Maranello after eight years at McLaren, along with helping Hamilton to kick off the new campaign. But Ferrari will have to secure an agreement with McLaren soon.
Reports have suggested that McLaren could hold Michel-Grosjean to three to six months of gardening leave, having only left the Woking squad in December following the conclusion of the 2025 season. McLaren’s stance could stop him from joining Ferrari for up to seven races.
Ferrari will hope that McLaren agree to release Michel-Grosjean nearer to three months, as it would then let him begin working with Hamilton from the start of the 2026 term and also suit Santi’s timeline. If not, Hamilton’s second season at Ferrari will likely start on uneasy ground.
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