Ferrari now see former Oscar Piastri engineer as ‘most credible’ candidate for Lewis Hamilton role

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Lewis Hamilton will get a new race engineer in the 2026 F1 season, but he might have to wait up to six months for Ferrari to welcome their replacement for Riccardo Adami.

Ferrari announced earlier in January that Adami has moved to a new role in Maranello, after he failed to build his rapport with Hamilton during his first year at the team. Adami will now manage Ferrari’s driver academy, along with their testing of previous cars (TPC) programme.

Adami could not understand Hamilton’s need for emotional support, after working with two thoughtful drivers in Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz across his first 11 years at Ferrari. The differences between their approaches caused a number of tetchy exchanges over the radio.

But Ferrari have yet to name Adami’s replacement, as no obvious internal candidate to take over as Hamilton’s race engineer has currently emerged. Instead, Hamilton will work with a temporary race engineer during the official shakedown test in Barcelona on January 26-30.

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Ferrari target Cedric Michel-Grosjean to replace Riccardo Adami as Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer

Charles Leclerc’s race engineer, Bryan Bozzi, will work with Hamilton in Barcelona, as Ferrari will field one car at a time. Additionally, Fanpage reports that Carlo Santi will also work with Hamilton in Barcelona, as Ferrari seek some continuity entering the 2026 F1 regulations era.

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But while Santi is highly experienced, Ferrari do not believe he is the ideal option to replace Adami as Hamilton’s full-time race engineer. Instead, Ferrari have set their sights on Cedric Michel-Grosjean after he left McLaren in December, after eight years with the Woking crew.

Ferrari are evaluating several external candidates, but Michel-Grosjean has emerged as the ‘most credible’ option to be Hamilton’s new race engineer. Michel-Grosjean worked closely with Oscar Piastri before he quit his role as McLaren’s lead trackside performance engineer.

Frenchman Michel-Grosjean is currently serving his period of gardening leave after leaving McLaren, which would delay any move to Ferrari for three to six months. So, in the interim, Ferrari will rely on Luca Diella to be a liaison to Hamilton until Adami’s replacement arrives.

Cedric Michel-Grosjean left McLaren after directly helping Oscar Piastri’s 2025 F1 title bid

Ferrari have ruled out reuniting Hamilton with Peter Bonnington, as the Scuderia do not see a way to coax the engineer from Mercedes, where he now works with Andrea Kimi Antonelli and as their head of race engineering. Hamilton had an extremely close rapport with ‘Bono’.

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Instead, Ferrari’s search for Adami’s replacement has led them to Michel-Grosjean, who was a key part of Piastri’s engineering team at McLaren in 2025. The Frenchman was responsible for optimising the performance of Piastri’s car, as the Australian fought for the 2025 F1 title.

Michel-Grosjean was also directly involved in helping Piastri pick the best brake balance and engine braking modes, as well as improving his driving, over a Grand Prix weekend. He and race engineer Tom Stallard also worked with Piastri to improve the handling of his 2025 car.

Piastri finished the 2025 season third in the F1 drivers’ standings, which he led for the most days by anyone at 189. The Melbourne native also registered seven Grand Prix wins and 16 podiums, while Hamilton endured the worst year of his career after joining Ferrari in 2025.