Lewis Hamilton has described the confusing situation around his new race engineer at Ferrari as "detrimental" to the start of this second season with the F1 team.
Hamilton endured a difficult debut campaign with the team last year following his high-profile switch from Mercedes. Amongst the issues was what appeared to be a less-than-harmonious relationship on occasion with the engineering voice in his ear over race weekends, Riccardo Adami.
It was not until the middle of January, however, that Ferrari announced it had effectively demoted Adami, appointing him manager of the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy and Testing of Previous Cars programmes.
In the interim, Hamilton is working with Ferrari's head of remote engineering, Carlo Santi, who previously served as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2018.
Hamilton will work with Santi for the opening three or four grands prix before a permanent appointment is made, understood to be former McLaren engineer Cédric Michel-Grosjean.
The situation is complicated further by the fact that if Michel-Grosjean is appointed, he will need to get up to speed quickly to guide Hamilton through the nuances of this year's new wide-sweeping regulations.
In trying to bounce back from the travails he endured last year, the wait to have Michel-Grosjean in his corner is an arduous one, which he feels will have a negative impact on trying to hit the ground running this year.
"The first thing with Riccardo is that it was obviously a very difficult decision to make," said Hamilton.
"I'm really, really grateful for all the effort he put in last year and his patience. You know, it was a difficult year for us all."
Assessing the short-term Santi fix, he said: "It's actually quite a difficult period, because the solution that we currently have is not long-term. It's only going to be a few races.
"So early on into the season, I'm going to be switching up again, and I'll have to learn to work with someone new.
"That's detrimental to a season where you want to arrive with people who have done multiple seasons, who have been through thick and thin, and are calm.
"It is the situation I'm faced with, and I'll try and do the best I can. The team is trying to do the best it can to help make it seem as seamless as possible."
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