Ferrari stalwart rips into Hamilton’s ex-race engineer: 'This is not a call centre'

In January, Ferrari announced the end of the working relationship between the seven-time world champion and the Italian engineer, with the latter reassigned to the role of Ferrari Driver Academy coordinator and Manager of the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC).

He has been temporarily replaced by Carlo Santi, former race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen, who is currently sharing duties with Bryan Bozzi during pre-season testing.

Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Smedley pointed out that the frequent on-air radio clashes between Hamilton and Adami last season were a clear sign of a less-than-ideal working relationship and, above all, communication that was far from smooth.

“It is the job of the race engineer to know enough about the car and be across their work so that when the driver asks a question, you can answer quickly. It pains me when I hear ‘we’ll get back to you.’ This isn’t a call centre.”

The Scuderia team boss was inevitably quizzed on one of the key talking points surrounding the seven-time world champion, with his second season at Ferrari about to get underway and no final decision yet on who will be alongside him in Melbourne.

Addressing the matter, Vasseur told GPblog that the situation is being somewhat overplayed. According to the Frenchman, the working relationship between Hamilton, the team and the pit wall is already on very solid footing.