Lewis Hamilton names 'awesome' Ferrari factor key to F1 revival

Lewis Hamilton believes the changes he has requested are "finally" starting to filter through at Ferrari, including his "absolutely awesome" new race engineer.

Hamilton's first Ferrari engineer, Riccardo Adami, was removed from his post in the winter after the two failed to gel. That led to Kimi Raikkonen's former engineer, Carlo Santi, being appointed in his place.

Ferrari also signed Cedric-Michel Grosjean from McLaren, who is now working on Hamilton's car, with the seven-time F1 champion believing that his new team is beginning to gel, and which is showing in his performances. 

Hamilton put in arguably his strongest display as a Ferrari driver in Canada, out-qualifying Charles Leclerc for both the grand prix and sprint, and then claiming his best result for the team, with second place. 

Reflecting on the changes being made at Maranello, Hamilton was effusive over the impact Santi has had.

"I chose a different set-up [for Canada] in just going through the data, working really well with my engineer," Hamilton told the media, including RacingNews365. 

"He’s absolutely awesome, and I’m really loving working with him, and my number two did a fantastic job [in Montreal] and helped me really pull more performance out of the car, getting into a much sweeter place. I was able to attack all the corners finally.

"As I've said, there are a lot of changes that I’ve had to ask for, and Fred [Vasseur, team principal] has been super supportive and again also moving mountains to make me comfortable.

"It’s finally starting to show in my performance, so, thank you to the team."