Hamilton has an interim race engineer, McLaren rumor grows

Carlo Santi is essentially filling in as Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer during the test week in Spain, but a final appointment is still pending. There are whispers that this new man or woman has a past at McLaren.

For now, Ferrari is tight-lipped about who will become Hamilton’s permanent new race engineer. During the press conference at the launch of the SF-26, the Italian team refused to share anything about that with GPblog. A day later nothing has changed: “No comment” is the word from Maranello.

Riccardo Adami's successor at the race engineer role is yet to be revealed - Foto: Race Pictures

Santi has past experience

For the time being, Carlo Santi is holding the fort; a highly experienced figure, who was Kimi Raikkonen’s race engineer in the past. In Barcelona, he is working with Bryan Bozzi, Charles Leclerc’s right-hand man. There are rumors that Ferrari wants to bring in a former McLaren employee as Hamilton's eventual race engineer.

With the season fast approaching, Ferrari is searching for a successor to Adami, who was recently promoted out of the role. The duo had a difficult season during Hamilton's debut year at the team. Initially, it seemed they would work together for a second campaign, but Adami was reassigned another position after all last week.

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