Lewis Hamilton worry as Ferrari decision ‘could make the difference’ | F1 | Sport

A former Ferrari strategist has claimed the ongoing uncertainty over Lewis Hamilton‘s unresolved race engineer situation could decide whether the seven-time world champion’s spell with the Scuderia will be a success. The Brit has also been warned that expecting a significant improvement on that front this year with a new partner in his ear would be “unrealistic”.

It was always going to be difficult for Hamilton to strike a rapport with anyone new after more than a decade with trusted friend Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington as his Mercedes race engineer. But, after joining Ferrari, he failed to spark anything resembling a close connection with Riccardo Adami last year and several tense radio exchanges did not go unnoticed, leading to suggestions of a rift.

While Ferrari always denied that was the case, it was confirmed over the winter that Adami had been moved into a new role with the Italian team’s driver academy. Carlo Santi is filling in for now but a permanent replacement has yet to be appointed, with Hamilton admitting himself at pre-season testing in Bahrain this week that the situation is far from ideal.

He said: “It’s actually quite a difficult period because it’s not long-term – the solution that I currently have is only going to be for a few races. And so early on into the season, it’s going to be switching up again, and I’ll have to learn to work with someone new. So that’s detrimental to me, too. But it’s the situation that I’m face with and I’ll try to do the best I can.”

In a sport which regularly sees such tiny margins decide the outcome of races and championships, former Ferrari strategist Ruth Buscombe has warned that the ongoing uncertainty within Hamilton’s camp could prove to be a significant barrier to success.

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“The driver-race engineer relationship is one of the most important performance factors in F1, even for the most experienced and successful drivers,” she told Express Sport, via Replay Poker. “At this level, everyone is operating very close to the limit and, across the grid, the performance differences from first to last is often around one to one-and-a-half percent. That means tiny things – clarity, timing, trust – can have a measurable impact.

“In Lewis’ case, he worked with Bono for well over a decade across multiple championship seasons. When you’ve built that kind of partnership, communication becomes almost instinctive. Often, only a few words are needed because both sides already understand how the other thinks.

“Like any tight high-performance working relationship, that connection takes time to build and, when a new pairing forms, there is naturally a settling-in phase. From my experience working with drivers like Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, the strongest partnerships were the ones where that bond and trust had developed over time.

“And, importantly, there are no bad teams in F1. Everyone is operating at an extraordinary level, which is why these small details can genuinely make the difference. Roles inside the garage are incredibly specialised, and people work together under intense time pressure, so working rhythms become very established.

“When there is a significant personnel change, there is always an adaptation phase while new communication patterns and trust are built. Once that shared understanding develops, things tend to stabilise quickly, but it’s unrealistic to expect any new working relationship to feel seamless from day one.”