Overview
- Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley criticised deferred pit‑wall answers, saying drivers need immediate, confident responses or trust erodes.
- He characterised the race engineer’s job as a 50/50 split between technical mastery and human coaching, pointing to Verstappen–Lambiase as the benchmark.
- Smedley warned that Ferrari’s intense culture can overwhelm even top talent, saying he has seen very good engineers being broken by the pressure.
- Ferrari reassigned Riccardo Adami in January, Hamilton continues with interim engineer Carlo Santi, and no permanent replacement has been named as Hamilton has called the delay detrimental.
- Team principal Fred Vasseur rejected talk of a damaged relationship with Hamilton, urging the media to stop focusing on the narrative and stressing the sport’s collective effort.