Is the “Italian Bono” behind Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari F1 resurgence?

Lewis Hamilton has credited his improved form in Formula 1 this season to being directly linked to a shake-up to his engineering team at Ferrari.

After a hugely disappointing debut season with Ferrari in 2025, Hamilton has enjoyed a much-improved start to the 2026 F1 season and has already claimed two podium finishes in China and Canada.

The seven-time world champion’s impressive form appears to have carried into the Monaco Grand Prix. Hamilton was second-fastest behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc in first practice on Friday, before coming out on top in the second session in another Scuderia one-two.

Speaking on Thursday in Monaco, Hamilton was full of praise for his new race engineer Carlo Santi, who took over from Riccardo Adami during the winter after the pair struggled to form an effective partnership last year.

Santi was originally only meant to be an interim replacement for Adami, but Kimi Raikkonen’s former engineer has struck up an instant bond with Hamilton, who previously enjoyed a hugely successful partnership with Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington during his 12 seasons at Mercedes.

In Santi, Hamilton believes he has found his “Italian Bono” at Ferrari.

"The driver-engineer working together is very, very important,” Hamilton told media including Crash.net.

"Last year Adami and I had a really good relationship. He's a lovely guy. We work relatively well together. I think catering to a driver's needs takes time to learn.

"When you're giving an engineer feedback, their understanding of corner balance, their understanding of all the elements that contribute to the struggles that you're struggling with, when you try to describe what it is, the problem you have, corner by corner, entry, main and exit, or you dissect it into five sections if you want.

"Having that driver-engineer collab, it's hit and miss sometimes. With me and Bono, it hit off from the beginning mostly. He had a good working relationship with Michael [Schumacher].

"I do feel like Carlo is like my Italian Bono. I told Bono that the other day! He's a bit of an OG. He's an older guy that's been around the block. He's very calm. You can hear him on the radio.

"This is a detail that we were able to go into together. Our understanding of the engineering side, I think it's something that's worth remembering."

Hamilton has moved ‘a lot of things on the chessboard’

Hamilton had a troubled first season in red and was comprehensively and consistently beaten by Leclerc in both qualifying and races throughout 2025.

But there has been a notable step forward for Hamilton in 2026, which has coincided with a move away from the ground-effect cars he was not a fan of.

The performance between Leclerc and Hamilton has been much more closely matched across the opening races of the new season, and the 41-year-old Briton says his turnaround is no fluke.

“What most people don't realise is the work that goes on that you have to do in the background,” Hamilton said. “Of course you see drivers in the past like Kimi, for example, who just join a team and drive the car, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

“For me, I've come to a team that, as I mentioned last year, has everything it needs to succeed, but it's just needing the pieces of the puzzle put in the right place in order for it to get there.

“And I've been 100% committed to getting to that point, knowing that it was difficult, particularly through the first part of last year, it was very, very tough.

“But as I said in the last race, Fred [Vasseur] has been great in working with me and helping me. For example, the engineer setup is a million times better than it was last year and I'm starting to see the fruits of that through how I'm driving the car.

“So, it's great to be able to be a part of working with everyone to move the ship in the right direction. We still have a long way to go and we still need to improve in some areas, but I think we're on the right path."

Hamilton explained he has moved “a lot of things on the chessboard” to get into a better place at Ferrari during his sophomore campaign and now feels he can consistently compete as a result. 

"It's a lot different this whole year compared to last year,” Hamilton explained.

"A lot of pawns have moved, managed to move a lot of things on the chessboard, and reposition myself, I think, within the team.

"We're working really well together. I've got the right engineers now that I need. They're doing a great job.

"I feel like I've obviously had input into this year's car and it's moving in a direction that I particularly like.

"These things take time, and I'm grateful that we are where we are, but we've got a lot of work going forwards. It's not a given that we're going to be competitive everywhere we go.”