Lewis Hamilton has made a significant change to his backroom staff after parting company with race engineer Riccardo Adami following one fractious season together at Ferrari.
The British driver’s Ferrari team said Adami has been moved to a different role within the organisation.
Hamilton was forced to defend his relationship with Adami throughout last year following a number of tense radio exchanges.
However, the 41-year-old will now have a different race engineer in place for the new season which gets under way in Australia on March 8.
A statement from Ferrari read: “Scuderia Ferrari HP announces that Riccardo Adami has moved to a new role within the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy as Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy and Test Previous Cars Manager, where his extensive trackside experience and Formula One expertise contributes to the development of future talent and to strengthening performance culture across the program.
“Ferrari HP would like to thank Riccardo for his commitment and contribution to his trackside role and wishes him every success in his new position. The appointment of the new Race Engineer for car #44 (Hamilton) will be announced in due course.”
Hamilton won six of his record-equalling seven world titles with Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington at his side with Mercedes. However, Bonnington could not be persuaded to join Hamilton at Ferrari for his first season and the Press Association understands he will remain with the Silver Arrows for the upcoming campaign.
Hamilton pleaded with Adami to “leave me to it” in the rain in their first race together in Australia, and then accused his team of having “a tea break” as they deliberated whether to move Charles Leclerc out of his way at the Miami Grand Prix in May.
Adami worked with Sebastian Vettel, first at Toro Rosso, before he followed the four-time world champion to Ferrari. Adami was Carlos Sainz’s race engineer before Hamilton replaced the Spaniard at Ferrari.
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In his debut season in red, Hamilton was outqualified by Leclerc 19 times in 24 appearances.
Hamilton ended the season without a single podium for the first time in his career and finished 86 points behind his team-mate in the championship.
The first pre-season test – which takes place behind-closed doors at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya – begins on January 26.
