David Coulthard shocked Lewis Hamilton joined Ferrari "alone" as he points to key F1 relationship

David Coulthard has questioned why Lewis Hamilton moved from Mercedes to Ferrari without bringing trusted personnel with him

Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has questioned why Lewis Hamilton did not bring any personnel from Mercedes to Ferrari, as he noted the importance of a race engineer.

The seven-time champion joined Ferrari in 2025 after a 12-year stint with Mercedes. In his first year with the Maranello outfit, Hamilton struggled to adapt to the new team and will also be paired with a new race engineer in 2026 after failing to gel with Riccardo Adami.

"I find it absolutely fascinating that Lewis Hamilton left Mercedes and walked into Ferrari alone," Coulthard explained on the Up To Speed podcast.

"He didn't take anyone with him. And he may have brought Angela [Cullen], his physio, back because she'd gone away towards the end of his Mercedes career. So he had someone around him that was a touchpoint to make him feel comfortable.

"But every time I left a team, I took an engineer with me. They're your data bank of knowledge. The relationship with your engineer is the most important relationship in the team because that's the person who fights your corner in terms of new parts coming into the team.

"That's the person that gives you all the information when you're out on track to define what your strategy is going to be because the strategist can tell you pit now, but if the driver doesn't come in, you're not pitting now. So, it's so important, arguably more important than the relationship you have with your partner."

It is understood that Hamilton had an anti-poaching clause in his Mercedes contract, but former F1 TV presenter Will Buxton shared Coulthard's surprise that the 41-year-old driver hasn't now brought anyone over a year later.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Erik Junius

"I think DC makes the point there that it's more important than the relationship that you have with your partner. But I think it's very similar to the relationship you have with your partner, because when you're with somebody for a long time, you develop a language that you speak to each other that you inherently understand," Buxton said.

"That is something that becomes second nature, he had with Bono [Peter Bonnington]. And there was the clause in him leaving Mercedes where he wasn't allowed to take anybody with him in the immediacy. But I thought one year in maybe people would follow him across.

"He's actually lost people over the winter that did come over with him. Marc Hynes, his manager, has gone. His press officer has gone. He is losing people that were loyal to him that were part of his enclave. They've disappeared."