Chandhok sounds alarm over Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer void at Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton’s lack of a race engineer has been described as “alarm bells ringing” by Karun Chandhok, who suggested more should have been done by Ferrari over the winter.

With the start of the new season edging closer, Hamilton does not currently have an assigned race engineer after Riccardo Adami moved to a new role.

‘Alarm bells’ raised over Lewis Hamilton race engineer

The Scuderia announced earlier this month that Adami, who had been at Ferrari since following Sebastian Vettel there in 2015, was being reassigned to the Ferrari Driver Academy after a sometimes tense year between him and Hamilton.

That leaves Hamilton without a race engineer heading into pre-season testing. Charles Leclerc’s engineer, Bryan Bozzi, is covering the role for both drivers in the Barcelona shakedown.

Chandhok, however, said Ferrari should have used the winter to allow Hamilton to bond with whoever replaces Adami, in the hope of building a relationship similar to the one he had with Peter Bonnington at Mercedes.

“Ringing alarm bells for me is this engineer situation because as far as we understand, Bryan Bozzi, who is Charles Leclerc’s normal race engineer, was running the car today [Tuesday], including for Lewis,” he said on Sky Sports.

“That confuses me, if I’m perfectly honest, because you know that relationship between driver and race engineer is so, so important.

“I think getting the feedback from the driver really, from my experience, the good engineer driver relationships are the unspoken things. The engineer, the driver, should be able to read each other’s minds.

More on Lewis Hamilton from PlanetF1.com

* Lewis Hamilton says drivers will play a ‘critical’ role under F1 2026 regulations
* Lewis Hamilton ‘excited for new beginnings’ amid Ferrari engineering uncertainty in F1 2026
* Main Ferrari target emerges in Lewis Hamilton race engineer search – reports

“When one’s complaining about something, the other one’s already able to finish their sentences and say ‘We’re going to do this, this, this and this, and change it, and that’ll make you better, or make it better for you.’

“And they haven’t created a situation where Lewis is building that relationship over the winter.

“I would have loved to have seen him do simulator days, building relationships. Go and get a TPC [Testing of Previous Cars] car. I know it’s a different generation, I know it’s an older car, but just go and bond, build a relationship. Go with a new engineer.

“You need to also integrate that person into the engineering setup of the race team, because they have to work in an environment along with the other engineers when the driver’s not around, right?

“I think the public hear the driver/engineer discussion, but that’s just a microcosm of the bigger conversations happening in that engineering office.

“To me, I’m slightly confused that as we sit here, we’ve already started testing and that bonding and relationship building hasn’t started off the back of a season which was not good.”

One rumoured name to be Hamilton’s next race engineer could be Cedric Michel-Grosjean, who was Oscar Piastri’s lead trackside performance engineer last season but according to reports in Italy, left the Woking team at the conclusion of 2025.

Chandhok suggested that if it is to be Grosjean, his small build-up time to the role and a new season makes it a big ask.

“That’s a tall order for Cedric Grosjean if it’s true, right? Join a new team after testing has already started, not having spent the winter learning the Ferrari way, because every team has a different way of doing things.”

Ferrari has declined to comment, saying it will provide an update when there is a development.

Read next: Is Barcelona testing blackout doing F1’s engineering excellence a disservice?