Last Updated on January 23 2026, 9:15 pm

Brundle accuses Ferrari of making mistakes with Hamilton – A few days ago, Ferrari confirmed that Lewis Hamilton would be working with a new race engineer from the 2026 Formula 1 season onwards. For Martin Brundle, however, the announcement raised only one real question: why did it take so long?

The former Formula 1 driver and long-standing Sky Sports pundit believes that Ferrari should have made the change much earlier. He argues that the partnership between Hamilton and Riccardo Adami was flawed from the outset.

Brundle was openly critical of Ferrari’s decision-making during the past season, stating that Adami’s removal was long overdue. In an interview with Sky Sports, Brundle admitted he was “surprised” that the Italian engineer had not been replaced sooner, especially given the frequent communication issues that had become public knowledge throughout the year.

 

Radio confusion as a warning sign

Throughout the 2025 season, repeated misunderstandings between Hamilton and Adami were broadcast over the team radio, often at critical moments during races. Strategy calls, feedback on car balance and responses to Hamilton’s requests were often out of sync, fuelling speculation that the working relationship was not functioning as intended.

For Brundle, these exchanges were a clear warning sign. In his view, Ferrari waited far too long to act, despite there being mounting evidence that the collaboration was not providing Hamilton with the clarity and confidence he needs to perform at his best.

 

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“A bad choice from the start”

Brundle went further, suggesting that Ferrari had made a fundamental error by pairing Hamilton with Adami in the first place. He believes that a driver of Hamilton’s stature and experience requires a race engineer who instinctively understands how he communicates under pressure.

“I said before that Lewis should move to Ferrari with a team who understand the ‘Lewis language’, at least when he’s in the car,” he explained.

He stressed that correctly interpreting Hamilton’s comments, knowing what is urgent, what is exploratory and what is a clear instruction, is essential for success.

According to Brundle, this understanding does not develop overnight. Without it, small misinterpretations can quickly turn into lost lap time, compromised strategy calls and mounting frustration on both sides of the garage.

 

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Impact on Hamilton’s Ferrari adaptation

Brundle also argued that Hamilton needed this level of support to hit the ground running at Ferrari. Joining a new team after spending so many years at Mercedes was always going to be a significant transition, and establishing a strong, intuitive relationship with his race engineer could have eased the process considerably.

Over time, Brundle believes it became obvious within Ferrari that the situation was unsustainable. “Over the past few months, it had finally become clear that something had to change,” he said, suggesting that the team had effectively delayed an inevitable decision.

 

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Ferrari’s official position

At the start of the year, Ferrari announced Adami’s departure, confirming that he had been reassigned to the team’s in-house driver academy. In an official statement, the Scuderia said that Adami would contribute his ‘extensive experience on the racetrack, as well as his Formula 1 expertise’, in order to develop future talent and strengthen the programme’s performance culture.

As for Hamilton, Ferrari stated that it will “announce in due course” who will take over as his race engineer for the 2026 season, a decision that could be pivotal for the next stage of his Ferrari career.

 

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NEXT ARTICLE – Hamilton’s Ferrari ‘breaks down’ in shakedown and the Scuderia demonstrate their shambolic organisation once again

As Formula One’s most historic and successful team, Ferrari   are persistently under the microscope more than any other competitor. In 2025, the decision was made to abandon the in season car development of the SF-25 after just six race weekends to the disappointment of both Lewis Hamilton and. Charles Leclerc.

The lack of upgrades took its toll during the second half of the year, as the Scuderia slipped from a comfortable second place in the constructors’ championship to a distant fourth come the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Whilst the SF-25 was a difficult car to drive, Charles Leclerc managed to rack up seven podiums across the season, although five of these were tellingly before the summer break.

Lewis Hamilton’s blockbuster move to Maranello ended in huge disappointment as the seven times world champion for the first time in his illustrious F1 career failed to make the podium on Sunday even once. Now the hopes of the tifosi are pinned on the extra time and resources Ferrari committed to the 2026 project and that the team will emerge as a front running contender.

 

Ferrari’s big reveal cock up

Yet the same old Ferrari organisation has turned up in 2026. Last week announcing Hamilton’s race engineer, Riccardo Adami, would be benched but as pre-season testing approaches no replacement has been appointed. The four and a half days Hamilton will now have in the Scuderia’s 2026 competitor will see Charles Leclerc’s engineer in his ear.

This is clearly less than ideal given the valuable time lost for Lewis and his new engineer to bond. Today Ferrari again demonstrated their shambolic organisation as they revealed their all new 2026 challenger online. The renders were immediately clear to be of the 2025 car which delivered zero victories in a season of woe.

The tifosi were quick to comment on the error and the uninspiring text associated with the pictures of the 2025 car which stated: “The 72nd (sic) Formula 1 car for Scuderia Ferrari HP is the first designed under the new regulations.”

When someone in Maranello woke up to their mistake, the renders were swiftly replaced with those relating to the 2026 car. The livery is striking and the engine cover is now completely white which resembles the car which Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen drove back in 2016. Ominously the SF-16 from ten years ago failed to win a Grand Prix, and so associating this year’s machine with that of 2016 appears to be another faux par in…CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE