Ferrari make hard demand over much-discussed Lewis Hamilton 'story'

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has played down the significance of Lewis Hamilton not having a race engineer in place for the new F1 season.

Hamilton worked with Ricardo Adami throughout his maiden season with Ferrari last year but split with the engineer ahead of the 2026 campaign.

However, a permanent replacement has not been named despite the opening round of the season being just over two weeks away.

The communication efficiency between Hamilton and Adami was questioned on several occasions last year, particularly when the seven-time champion was heard voicing his frustration over team radio.

As Hamilton will have to establish a new relationship with his race engineer, Vasseur denied that it is casting a negative atmosphere over his season.

“It’s not exactly the discussion that we had,” Vasseur told media including RacingNews365.

“I think the collaboration between the team and Lewis on the pit wall is very good.

“It’s not that he was not committed, but [he is high] in confidence and very open to the relationship.

“My feeling is very positive with this and we will continue to improve. The mindset is to try to do a better job tomorrow than today.

“I think that if we have areas where we can improve, I will continue to push in this direction, but Lewis is in a very good mindset.”

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At pre-season testing, Hamilton has been working with Carlo Santi - a former race engineer of Kimi Raikkonen.

In the build-up to the new year, it has been widely reported that Ferrari is seeking to hire Cedric Michel-Grosjean, who recently left McLaren, as Hamilton's new race engineer.

But amid the speculation, Vasseur voiced a desire to see an end to the discussions.

When he was asked another question about Hamilton's race engineer topic, he interrupted and stated: “Please stop with this story.

“If you go into the paddock of 22 cars, you have approximately six or seven new engineers each year and the same with the team principals.

“I’m probably the oldest one with Toto [Wolff]. You are changing three or four team principals each year and it’s not the end of the team.

“The team today is something like 1,500 people. It’s not about one race engineer.

“The guy that you see on the pit wall is leading a team of people working on the car and it’s not a matter of individuals.

“In F1, it’s always about the team. It’s never about the individual.”