Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) and his calm voice in his ear: who is Carlo Santi?

For most Formula 1 fans, this Ferrari employee is a complete unknown: who was this man on the Barcelona podium with Lewis Hamilton? The Englishman didn’t just happen to take him up there – it’s his race engineer, Carlo Santi (52).

Lewis Hamilton is decent enough not to publicly criticise his 2025 race engineer, Riccardo Adami. But it soon became clear last season that the chemistry wasn’t right between Hamilton and the former Vettel technician. In early 2026, Adami was reassigned within Ferrari.

During the winter tests, Leclerc’s engineer Bryan Bozzi looked after Hamilton – as a stopgap solution. Ferrari then manoeuvred Carlo Santi to work alongside Lewis. The 52-year-old from Verona previously worked as Kimi Räikkönen’s race engineer; in 2019, Santi moved to the race car factory to head up the so-called ‘remote garage’ – the team of technicians supporting Ferrari from Maranello.

Santi was initially seen as a stopgap until Hamilton was to be assigned a permanent engineer; there was talk of former McLaren employee Cedric Grosjean.

But then something unexpected happened: the chemistry between Santi and Hamilton clicked straight away. Lewis in Monaco: “The connection between a racing driver and a race engineer is fundamental to success. Sometimes it clicks, sometimes it doesn’t. Back at Mercedes, I got on with Bono (Pete Bonnington) straight away, and now, with Carlo, I’ve basically found my Italian Bono.”

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“Carlo is one of the slightly older members of staff; he brings a wealth of experience to the table. He’s extremely calm – you can hear that in the radio communications. We’re on the same wavelength.”

Hamilton on their moments together on the winners’ podium in Barcelona: “It was fantastic to have him up there on the podium with me. He joined the team this year and threw himself into this adventure alongside me. We didn’t know each other; we’d never spoken before, and I knew nothing about him. We met, and I think we hit it off straight away. I think it’s fantastic to build a connection with another engineer, compared to the one I’d had for so long.»

“Carlo is a really quiet chap. You can tell he finds it hard to express his feelings – he just smiled whilst I gave him those big hugs, pulled him close and said thank you. I like the idea that this milestone has rekindled his love for the role of an engineer, just as it has for me in my role as a driver.”