Lewis Hamilton praises new race engineer after Ferrari F1 breakthrough

Lewis Hamilton has heaped praise on his new Ferrari Formula 1 race engineer Carlo Santi after his breakthrough weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton enjoyed his best weekend as a Ferrari driver in Canada, taking a brilliant second in Sunday’s grand prix to claim his strongest result yet in red.

After Hamilton experienced a difficult first year at the famous Italian team, Ferrari confirmed they would appoint a new permanent race engineer for him after announcing that Riccardo Adami was being moved into another role within the organisation.

Santi, who previously engineered Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari, was brought in on what was supposed to be an interim basis during pre-season, but he has remained the voice in Hamilton’s ear throughout the opening five rounds.

The 41-year-old Briton said after Montreal that he is relishing the partnership so far.

“I chose a different set-up this weekend, just ciphering through the data, working really well with my engineer – he’s absolutely awesome and I’m really loving working with him,” Hamilton explained.

“My number two did a fantastic job this weekend, helped me really pull more performance out of the car, getting into a much sweeter place, and I was able to attack all the corners finally.

“As I said, there’s a lot of changes that I’ve had to ask for, and Fred’s been super supportive, and again, also moving mountains in order to make me comfortable. It’s finally starting to show in my performance, so thank you to the team.”

Hamilton, who avoided using Ferrari’s simulator ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, added that his team had been “moving mountains” with him behind the scenes to help him deliver his recent strong performances.

“I had so much fun out there all weekend – every single lap. I felt like we started on the right foot, came with the right attitude, and the car really generally felt great,” he added.

“To come to Montreal, a track that I do love, and get to enjoy a Sprint weekend here, which is the first that we’ve had [here], was awesome – and this is my first second place with the team.

“It’s something I’ve been working so hard [for]… I can’t even begin to explain how deep I’ve had to dig to be able to get to this point, and the work and moving mountains in the background to enable this sort of performance.

“But I’m really grateful to the team for continuing to hold me up high and support me weekend in, weekend out, and it’s a really lovely feeling to see them so happy, because they truly deserve it with all the hard work they put in.”