Lewis Hamilton’s first season with Ferrari ended with a major change on the pit wall. Attention has now turned to who will guide the seven-time world champion on the radio in 2026 following Riccardo Adami’s reassignment.
Ferrari confirmed this week that Adami would move into a new role within the Driver Academy and the Testing of Previous Cars program, bringing an end to his first and only season as Hamilton’s race engineer. The decision came after a difficult 2025 campaign with frequent communication issues, strategy disagreements, and timing errors on the radio. While Charles Leclerc collected all of the team’s podium finishes, Hamilton finished the year without one.
Ferrari chose to restructure ahead of the 2026 regulation reset that will place even greater emphasis on driver–engineer coordination. According to F1 Passion, the leading candidate to replace Adami is Luca Diella. The Italian engineer is already embedded on Hamilton’s side of the garage, currently working as his performance engineer after joining Ferrari from Mercedes in early 2025.
Diella’s profile fits the direction Ferrari appears to be taking. He has a strong technical background in power unit systems, data analysis, and race software, developed through earlier roles at Cosworth and during his long stint at Mercedes.
Between 2019 and 2024, Luca Diella worked within the Brackley operation and became part of Lewis Hamilton’s engineering group, building a detailed understanding of the Briton’s driving style and technical preferences. That prior connection is seen as a major advantage.
Diella was directly involved in Hamilton’s performance work during his final seasons at Mercedes and then supported his transition to Ferrari, helping him adapt to the SF-25 and the team’s operational methods. His role placed him at the center of setup decisions, energy management, and race simulation, creating a level of trust and familiarity that is difficult to replicate quickly with a completely new engineer.
La Gazzetta dello Sport notes that Diella’s potential promotion would follow a similar path to that of Bryan Bozzi on Charles Leclerc’s side, who moved from performance engineer to race engineer in 2024. Such a step would provide continuity at a time when Ferrari is preparing for the sweeping 2026 technical overhaul and when Hamilton, entering the final years of his career, needs stability and clarity on the radio.
With Adami now focusing on driver development and testing programs, the team is free to rebuild the working structure around Lewis Hamilton with an engineer who already understands both his driving and his communication style.
Mercedes’ Peter Bonnington “not a chance” to be Lewis Hamilton’s new radio engineer: Reports
Lewis Hamilton’s most successful engineer partnership remains his long-running collaboration with Peter Bonnington at Mercedes, which delivered six world championships and over a decade of continuity between 2013 and 2024. Given that history, speculation naturally arose about a possible reunion at Ferrari.
However, the Daily Mail has reported that such a move is not under consideration. Citing sources in Italy, the outlet stated that there is no chance of Bonnington joining Hamilton at Maranello.
“Not a chance,” a source told the publication when asked about the possibility of Bonnington following Hamilton to Ferrari.
The reasoning is both contractual and strategic. Bonnington is now working with Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes and is deeply involved in the team’s long-term project built around the young Italian. Antonelli finished only six points behind Hamilton in the 2025 standings in his rookie season, claimed two podiums, and has already established himself as a central figure in Mercedes’ future plans after turning 18 this year.
With that structure in place, Mercedes has no intention of releasing Bonnington, and Ferrari is instead focused on strengthening their own internal lineup rather than attempting to recreate the past.
Edited by Sankalp Srivastava
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