After a difficult first season at Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton seems to have found the right interlocutor with his new race engineer Carlo Santi.
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Lewis Hamilton finally seems to have found at Ferrari a technical relationship comparable to the one that accompanied him during his years of dominance at Mercedes. The Briton does not hesitate to call his new race engineer Carlo Santi the “Italian Bono,” in reference to Peter Bonnington.
Santi was promoted to Hamilton’s race engineer position at the start of the 2026 season, initially on a provisional basis. He replaced Riccardo Adami, reassigned to other roles within the Scuderia after a difficult first campaign for the seven-time world champion at Maranello.
This change accompanies Hamilton’s clear resurgence this season, as communication between the driver and his engineer now appears much more natural.
A special relationship with Peter Bonnington
Hamilton had built an exceptional bond with Peter Bonnington, better known as “Bono,” at Mercedes.
The two men worked together for almost the entire duration of the Briton’s time at Mercedes. Bonnington was notably his engineer for 83 of his 84 wins with the German team and accompanied him during his six world titles won under the star brand’s colors.
Upon his arrival at Ferrari in 2025, Hamilton had to completely rebuild this relationship with Riccardo Adami, former engineer of Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz.
The Briton nevertheless emphasizes that their relationship was good.
“Last year, Adami and I had a very good relationship and he was a lovely person, Hamilton explained to the media. We actually worked quite well together.”
A connection that is not always easy to build
Hamilton points out, however, that a good personal relationship is not necessarily enough. For a driver, the ability of his engineer to precisely understand his feelings and to translate them into settings is an essential element of performance.
“Meeting a driver’s needs takes time, Hamilton explained. When you give information to an engineer, he has to understand the car’s balance in the corners and all the elements that contribute to the difficulties.”
The driver must notably be able to detail the behavior of the car at the entry, middle, and exit of a corner, then rely on his engineer to correctly interpret this information.
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“Having this relationship between the driver and the engineer, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
With Bonnington, the connection was almost immediate.
“With Bono, it worked from the start,” admits Hamilton.
Carlo Santi, the “Italian Bono”
Carlo Santi is not unknown in the Ferrari paddock. The Italian was notably Kimi Räikkönen’s race engineer and worked with the Finn when he secured his last Formula 1 victory, at the 2018 United States Grand Prix.
His experience and especially his temperament seem particularly suited to Hamilton.
“I really feel that Carlos is my Italian Bono, said the seven-time world champion. I even told Bono that the other day.”
Hamilton especially appreciates the calm of his new engineer and the experience accumulated over his career.
“He’s a bit of an ‘OG.’ He gives the impression of being someone experienced, who has seen it all, and he is very calm.”
But it is above all the quality of the technical exchanges that seems to have convinced Hamilton.
“You can hear it on the radio, but it’s mainly the level of detail we are able to reach together thanks to our understanding of the technical aspect.”
After the difficulties of his first year at Ferrari, Hamilton seems to have found with Santi one of the missing pieces for him to fully thrive at Maranello. A bond that inevitably recalls the one that accompanied his greatest successes at Mercedes.
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