How the Australian GP proved a good relationship between race engineer and F1 driver is crucial

The new Ferrari combination of Lewis Hamilton and Riccardo Adami made the airwaves and headlines during and after Formula 1’s 2025 Australian Grand Prix. But they were far from the only new driver/race engineer combo making a high-profile bow in Melbourne.

There was Richard Wood and Liam Lawson at Red Bull, Aston Martin’s Andrew Vizard and Fernando Alonso, Josh Peckett and Jack Doohan for Alpine, Laura Mueller and Esteban Ocon, plus Ronan O’Hare and Oliver Bearman, at Haas. Pierre Hamelin and Isack Hadjar for Racing Bulls, Gaetan Jego and Carlos Sainz at Williams, as well as Sauber’s Steven Petrik and Nico Hulkenberg, plus Jose Manuel Lopez and Gabriel Bortoleto.

The long list reflects the amount of driver market churn this off-season and it’s not even complete.

Perhaps most intriguingly of all, also at Aston, Lance Stroll is now working with Gary Gannon – the long-time Haas engineer who previously worked with Mick Schumacher and Romain Grosjean and forged a strong reputation in the process.

Last weekend, this was arguably the ‘good news’ story of all these new relationships – ones that can actually make or break an F1 team, if done well/wrong. In Gannon and Stroll, here we have a partnership that seems to have gelled well already.

Take the most critical moment of the Melbourne race for all drivers, which was choosing when to pit as the rain returned just after the second safety car period. Alonso had just crashed the other Aston and so all hope of a pressure-relieving result on the rather embattled green team post-Bahrain testing rested with Stroll.

On that lap 44 turning point, Gannon initially told Stroll that Aston thought “one more timed” tour would play out before the switch back to intermediates occurred.

But, with the McLaren drivers off in the Turn 12 gravel, and just before his new charge shot by the spun Ferrari of Charles Leclerc at Turn 11’s exit, Gannon warned “Turn 12 very slippery” before decisively delivering the strategy call that transformed Stroll’s race: “Box now, Lance!” 

Stroll, having nearly dropped it in the tricky pitlane entry, obeyed without question and in doing so was about to gain five spots and break into the points. He still had to get the intermediates up to temperature to make the move pay off on his out-lap, during which Gannon repeatedly reminded him to “keep it on track”.

That Gannon could stick to his usual soothing tones without fear of having his head immediately bitten off in response – “The pit confirm button is the OK button, Brad…” -style – spoke volumes of their early work together. Gannon only joined Aston, as revealed by Autosport, back in mid-January.

Having finished the race, Stroll was delighted with his engineer’s work.

“Great way to kick it off, man,” he exclaimed after coming home a surprise sixth. “So good. Pumped we had a good first race together – nice.”

Of course, it’s the early days of a long season, but how Gannon fairs after joining Stroll matters when considering the driver/engineer dynamic overall. The American is, after all, Stroll’s fourth engineer at Aston/Racing Point. But, when it clicks, these things can just take off.

Race engineer turnover is important because, as was once explained by ex-Ferrari engineer Rodi Basso, who most famously worked with Rubens Barrichello, it’s actually pretty rare.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Teams will generally only countenance changing a race engineer once for a driver before they really start to lose faith in the person in the cockpit.

These days, race engineers are some of the most high-profile F1 team staff – with their work and character broadcast to a global audience of millions. It doesn’t look good (more on this later) for a team to constantly be changing race engineers and ultimately the data they are conveying (and guarding) doesn’t lie. This will show a driver’s real problem or talent.

But the systems this information feeds are extremely complex and unique to each team.

And, with testing so restricted these days, it’s little wonder that Williams driver Sainz was suggesting money already being spent on team simulators could instead be allocated to fund more tests to help drivers get better acquainted with new procedures.

Sainz is learning the Mercedes engine and its systems – and seemingly still needs to adjust to the way Williams’ engine mapping delivers torque when set to its safety car mode. In the reverse way, Hamilton is also learning the Ferrari systems with Sainz’s former engineer, Adami, who previously worked with Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton’s repeated rebuffing of Adami’s suggestions last Sunday – mainly regarding Ferrari’s “K1” overtake mode and DRS activation – highlighted two things. Just how much the seven-time world champion is having to adjust in his new car and how second nature things had been for him at Mercedes.

PLUS: Baptism of ire – how Hamilton’s Ferrari debut could have gone better

The results of Hamilton’s partnership with Peter Bonnington were history-making at the Silver Arrows. But now the latter is guiding Andrea Kimi Antonelli through his F1 debut – his tone on the team radio airwaves are far more father-like and gentler than the matey vibes he had with Hamilton.

Riccardo Adami, Ferrari Race Engineer

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

From what Autosport observed in Melbourne, as with Gannon’s calm reminder to Stroll about not stuffing it up in the wet, Bonnington is regularly having to remind Antonelli of F1’s delta lap time processes regarding minimum lap time speed that also apply when following the safety car.

Across the Ferrari garage for Hamilton is a lesson in what can be achieved in that drastic race engineer shuffling. Leclerc’s former engineer Xavi Marcos Padros (now Cadillac technical director in top-flight sportscar racing) was replaced with Bryan Bozzi ahead of the Imola race last year.

Very quickly, the often fractious and vague (“we are checking”, anyone?) messages of Leclerc’s previous engineer relationship were replaced with something like a Monegasque/Italian/Danish Max Verstappen and Gianpiero Lambiase.

Leclerc and Bozzi have far more of an active vibe than was previously the case. Although, to extend the Red Bull comparison, it’s Leclerc who seems to do most of the chiding. After Sunday and that soaked seat, it seems nailed on that “add that to the words of wisdom” will quickly be much repeated in F1 online meme-dom…

But their results together were rapidly excellent too. The chaos of Monaco 2022 transformed into a dominant home win for Leclerc just one race on from Imola last year.

There’s far more to it than just this – Ferrari having a much better car and strategy processes, for instance – but what could’ve been a nervy race-long run on one set of tyres post-red flag in the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix was handled with aplomb by both driver and engineer.

Bryan Bozzi, Scuderia Ferrari

Photo by: Ferrari

Adami’s record speaks for itself – he wouldn’t have stayed in place from the Vettel Ferrari era if he were not an excellent engineer. But that was a brutal start to his partnership with Hamilton. Image is so important to F1 teams it’s hard to imagine Ferrari will want that to continue for long this year.

That’s absolutely not to say Adami’s place should or will be under pressure. But if a change were to be made one day, it would leave Hamilton with little space to find cover at a team where Leclerc has so far maintained his place as the quickest driver.

Time is key in all this. It’s why Sainz made the point he did in testing and shows how good things have started fast for Gannon and Stroll. 

And, had it not been for the race rain robbing Hamilton of confidence, his first Ferrari weekend probably would’ve been a story of going from being quite far off Leclerc (0.6s in FP1) – mainly in the high-speed corners of which there are few in China this weekend – to qualifying just over 0.1s and one place down.

But personalities in this critical aspect for F1 success matter too. It’s not all about data and it’s why Stroll’s strong start to life working with Gannon matters so much in the story of F1 2025, which has finally burst into life.