Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari debut is drawing closer and he’ll need the assistance of everyone within Maranello to make the 2025 F1 season a success.
Ferrari came close to winning their first Constructors’ Championship since 2006 last year.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had an opportunity to win the title but couldn’t stop Lando Norris from clinching victory in Abu Dhabi.
Lewis Hamilton has the inevitable job of improving on what Sainz produced for Ferrari last year.
However, a driver of his calibre will back himself to not only top the Spaniard’s performance from 2024, but go one better and overtake Leclerc as Ferrari’s top racer.
Hamilton will be desperate to carry over what made his partnership with Mercedes so successful when he starts racing for the Scuderia.
One of Hamilton most important relationships was with his race engineer Peter Bonnington.
Bonnington and Hamilton were emotional when he won at Silverstone in 2024 in what turned out to be his penultimate win for the Silver Arrows after he interited George Russell’s victory at Spa.
However, Bonnington didn’t follow Hamilton to Ferrari and instead, the 40-year-old will be working alongside race engineer Riccardo Adami, according to a report from Gazzetta dello Sport.
Riccardo Adami set to be named Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari engineer
The report from Gazzetta highlights the point that Hamilton won’t be joined at Ferrari by Bonnington in 2025, meaning the Brit will have his first new race engineer since his time at McLaren.
The Italian has plenty of experience as a race engineer, having worked with both Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz before Hamilton.
Adami has previously praised Sainz’s feedback, with the Spaniard infamous for being able to implement the best strategy possible from inside his cockpit.
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Hamilton’s experience makes him equally adept when it comes to that skill and it’s something Ferrari will greatly benefit from.
Ferrari have been told to get on top of their strategy woes which have cost Leclerc and Sainz in the past and could be the difference between victories given how close the field will be in 2025.
In the past, Hamilton has explained how important his relationship with his race engineers has been, stating: “It’s a very important relationship.
“Your engineer must be someone you trust. I’ll understand immediately if things will work or not.”
Sebastian Vettel very complimentary about Riccardo Adami during their time at Ferrari together
Hamilton has already asked Vettel about Adami and received some very exciting feedback.
Although Sainz may not want to help Hamilton too much after losing his seat to the seven-time world champion, he’s likely to provide him with very similar feedback.
During an interview with Corriere della Sera in 2020, Vettel was asked whether he would be bringing Adami with him to Aston Martin, having lost his Ferrari seat to Sainz.
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Vettel said: “I think Riccardo will stay at Ferrari, we’ve known each other forever and he’s a friend.
“He’s one of those who represents the values of Ferrari, if the brand is unique it’s because there are people like that in Maranello.”
Hamilton having a race engineer who understands what it means to be part of the Ferrari family will be very helpful.
Their relationship will be one of the most important when it comes to making Hamilton’s spell racing for the Tifosi a success.
