Lewis Hamilton shut down rumors of him trying to dismiss several Ferrari trackside personnel.
There's no truth to the reports mentioning Lewis Hamilton is pushing for changes to Ferrari's trackside personnel, at least according to the concerned man himself. The seven-time World Champion vehemently denied those reports, saying that he "never asked for anyone on his team to be replaced."
Hamilton also says that he does his best to "empower and lift" the people around him.
Just this week, Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper, reported that Hamilton had requested a shake-up of his trackside engineering crew. This comes after a series of frustrating radio exchanges and operational friction this season.
Hamilton's tension-filled radio exchange at Zandvoort
At the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix, Hamilton was running an alternative strategy on Lap 42 and was on fresher tyres. However, he found himself stuck behind teammate Charles Leclerc. He was understandably annoyed, as the typical decision there was for the team to prioritize the driver with fresher tyres.
But Ferrari never told Leclerc to let Hamilton by. Instead, it took an extra lap for Leclerc to make his pit stop, forcing his teammate to lose valuable time.
Right after, Hamilton had something sarcastic to say over the radio: "Great way of wasting time, guys. Good job."
And yet, things got even more awkward towards the latter stages at Zandvoort. The team opted to keep Hamilton out longer on older hard tyres, leading Hamilton to question the team's strategy. McLaren's Lando Norris and Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli eventually overtook him, prompting the British driver to go on a quick tirade:
"Are you using me as a guinea pig or what? What's going on? How long will you have me stay out?"
Luckily for Hamilton, a Virtual Safety Car was deployed shortly afterward, allowing him and Leclerc to pit.
At the end, Hamilton had to settle for fourth place, missing out on a potential podium finish.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur defended their strategy at Zandvoort, saying that they intentionally didn't tell Hamilton of the strategy, so as not to tip off their rivals.
Hamilton has a new race engineer this season
In his first year with Ferrari, Hamilton was paired with race engineer Riccardo Adami, who previously worked with Sebastian Vetterl and Carlos Sainz Jr. But a tough year saw Ferrari moving Adami to the Ferrari Driver Academy, where he now serves as manager.
In 2026, the team brought in Carlo Santi to serve as Hamilton's new race engineer. Santi previously worked with Kimi Raikkonen, assuming the role of performance engineer in 2016, and eventually, race engineer in 2018.
The Tifosi are hoping for a Hamilton and Santi to develop a strong, trusting relationship, just like the former World Champion did with his long-time Mercedes race engineer Peter "Bono" Bonnington.
