Who is Carlo Santi? The voice behind Lewis Hamilton’s first Ferrari F1 triumph

Carlo Santi is Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer for the 2026 Formula 1 season.

Santi was the voice in Hamilton’s ear as the seven-time world champion took his first victory with Ferrari at the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

The 52-year-old Italian, who is from Verona, was initially only meant to be a temporary stand-in for Hamilton following Ferrari’s decision to shift Riccardo Adami, who engineered the Briton during a disappointing debut season in red, to another role in the organisation during the winter. 

Having been appointed on an interim basis, Santi started working with Hamilton in pre-season testing but has continued to do so across the opening seven rounds of the 2026 campaign.

Santi previously worked with Kimi Raikkonen

After graduating from the Polytechnic University of Milan, where he studied mechanical engineering, Santi undertook a scholarship at the FIAT Research Centre in Turin, where he worked in the vehicle dynamics department.

His first F1 job came at Ferrari, where he started out as a vehicle modelling engineer. In this role, he worked on Ferrari’s first driver in loop simulator project.

Santi started working with Kimi Raikkonen in 2016, initially as the 2007 world champion’s performance engineer. In 2018, he was promoted to become Raikkonen’s race engineer. Santi engineered the Finn to his 21st and final F1 victory at the 2018 United States Grand Prix.

Santi moved into a remote leadership role based at Maranello in 2019. Following the reassignment of Adami to oversee the Ferrari Driver Academy in early 2026, Santi was brought in to become Hamilton’s race engineer.

Has Hamilton found his ‘Italian Bono’?

Hamilton had been expecting another change of race engineer when the 2026 season began but he immediately formed a strong connection with Santi.

Santi’s clear and direct communication with Hamilton has been hailed, and marks a drastic contrast to the Hamilton-Adami partnership. The broadcast of team radio messages became a talking point throughout Hamilton’s first season with Ferrari and pointed to communication struggles.

Hamilton’s form has vastly improved in 2026 and he secured his first grand prix podium as a Ferrari driver with third place in China, before going on to take back-to-back second-place finishes in Canada and Monaco.

Hamilton converted his first front row start for Ferrari in Barcelona into victory, marking his and the Scuderia’s first win in almost two years. Afterwards, Santi joined the 41-year-old Briton on the podium to celebrate the historic achievement.

Hamilton, who previously struck up the most successful F1 driver-engineer bond with Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington during his 12-year stint with Mercedes, has heaped praise on Santi’s contribution.

Their early success together in 2026 has led to Santi being dubbed as the ‘Italian Bono’.

"It was great to have him up there [on the podium]," Hamilton said. ”I think, you know, him kind of substituting this year, jumping in and diving in deep with me, we didn't know each other, we'd never spoken and I didn't know anything about him.

"And we met and I think got on straight away - it's great to be able to connect with an engineer other than what I used to have. You know, I had it for such a long time and then you kind of lose that feeling because Bono's now doing it with Kimi [Antonelli].

"It's really great to be able to share that experience with him on that stage, and also probably, like, he's very, very quiet.

"You could tell it's hard for him to express his emotions. He's just smiley and, you know, I'm giving him these big hugs and pulling him in, saying thank you.

"I like to think that this has probably reignited the love that he has as being an engineer as he has done for me as a driver.”

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says Hamilton and Santi have formed a strong relationship.

"I don't want to put Carlo in front or whatever," Vasseur said. "I think it's a huge effort from everybody. Carlo is part of the process and the fit between Carlo and Lewis is a good one.

"We have to react as a group in the good and the bad moments. When it's a bad moment, I'm trying to protect the team and to take the blame for myself.

"I don't want to put a department or someone in front. If we are getting results, it's because collectively we are doing a good job."