Rob Smedley has known as out one race engineer trait that “pains” him as he analysed Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer swap at Ferrari.
The previous Ferrari race engineer claimed that these in the identical function ought to have sufficient data to reply a driver immediately.
“I actually suppose it’s 50/50,” he defined on the Excessive Efficiency podcast, when requested how a lot of the race engineer’s function is engaged on the mind of the motive force and the technical abilities.
“From what I do know of different sports activities like soccer and rugby, it’s all the time a few 50/50 cut up once you work with athletes. In a Method 1 group, the race engineer is successfully the top coach for that driver, so you may’t flip up with no thought in regards to the technical aspect of the job.
“It’s actually necessary that you just perceive how the automotive works, how the motive force interacts with the car, and the way you optimise that entire bundle. However in the event you don’t perceive that there’s a human being within the automotive—an athlete with all the issues that we ‘mere mortals’ have—then it’s by no means going to work.”
In Hamilton’s first season on the Maranello outfit, he struggled to adapt to the brand new group and gel together with his race engineer Riccardo Adami. For 2026, Adami has been moved to a different function with the seven-time champion’s new full-time engineer but to be confirmed.
“In case you evaluate it to Max and GP [Gianpiero Lambiase], Lewis is new to the group and the connection together with his engineer continues to be fledgling,” Smedley defined.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Picture by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Photographs
Referring to a radio message in 2025 when Hamilton joked that Adami ought to make a cup of tea whereas he waited for his response to a query, Smedley added: “If these sorts of feedback are occurring on the radio, the connection isn’t totally shaped but, and that’s the place it might probably grow to be unhealthy. It’s a transparent signal that frustrations are boiling over.
“By the best way, it’s the job of the race engineer to know sufficient in regards to the automotive and be throughout their work in order that when the motive force asks a query, you may reply shortly. It pains me once I hear ‘we’ll get again to you.’ This isn’t a name centre.
“The driving force is making an attempt to carry out at 10/10 whereas driving at 200mph. Reply him and provides him confidence. In case you reply like you might want to go ask another person, these tiny moments erode belief, and the connection turns into tense.
“The Ferrari engineer in query has had an extended and profitable profession, and he was really helpful to Lewis by Sebastian Vettel. He had an excellent relationship and quite a lot of success with Sebastian. However generally it’s like my story with Felipe in 2006: if it doesn’t gel, it doesn’t work.”
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