Rob Smedley on Lewis Hamilton's race engineer swap and the habit that "pains" him

Rob Smedley has called out one race engineer trait that "pains" him as he analysed Lewis Hamilton's race engineer swap at Ferrari.

The former Ferrari race engineer claimed that those in the same role should have enough knowledge to answer a driver straight away.

"I honestly think it’s 50/50," he explained on the High Performance podcast, when asked how much of the race engineer's role is working on the brain of the driver and the technical skills.

"From what I know of other sports like football and rugby, it’s always about a 50/50 split when you work with athletes. In a Formula 1 team, the race engineer is effectively the head coach for that driver, so you can’t turn up with no idea about the technical side of the job.

"It’s really important that you understand how the car works, how the driver interacts with the vehicle, and how you optimise that whole package. But if you don’t understand that there’s a human being in the car—an athlete with all the flaws that we 'mere mortals' have—then it’s never going to work."

In Hamilton's first season at the Maranello outfit, he struggled to adapt to the new team and gel with his race engineer Riccardo Adami. For 2026, Adami has been moved to another role with the seven-time champion's new full-time engineer yet to be confirmed.

"If you compare it to Max and GP [Gianpiero Lambiase], Lewis is new to the team and the relationship with his engineer is still fledgling," Smedley explained.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Referring to a radio message in 2025 when Hamilton joked that Adami should make a cup of tea while he waited for his response to a question, Smedley added: "If those kinds of comments are happening on the radio, the relationship isn’t fully formed yet, and that’s where it can become unhealthy. It’s a clear sign that frustrations are boiling over.

"By the way, it is the job of the race engineer to know enough about the car and be across their work so that when the driver asks a question, you can answer quickly. It pains me when I hear 'we’ll get back to you.' This isn’t a call centre.

"The driver is trying to perform at 10/10 while driving at 200mph. Answer him and give him confidence. If you respond like you need to go ask someone else, those tiny moments erode trust, and the relationship becomes tense.

"The Ferrari engineer in question has had a long and successful career, and he was recommended to Lewis by Sebastian Vettel. He had a great relationship and a lot of success with Sebastian. But sometimes it’s like my story with Felipe in 2006: if it doesn’t gel, it doesn’t work."