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Ferrari complete exciting signing amid hunt for new Lewis Hamilton ally
Reach Daily Express | February 4, 2026 1:39 PM CST

Ferrari have reportedly completed the signing of Guillaume Dezoteux from Racing Bulls, with the Frenchman appointed as head of performance operations. The deal comes amidst an ongoing search for Lewis Hamilton's next race engineer.

Dezoteux arrives from Racing Bulls, where he served as head of vehicle performance for the past two seasons. He spent 18 years within the Red Bull family in several roles before joining Fred Vasseur's squad ahead of the 2026 campaign, as per a GPblog report.

Vasseur and Ferrari are looking to add another key hire this offseason as they search for a new voice for Hamilton's ears. Riccardo Adami was moved into a role within the Ferrari Driver Academy after a challenging first season alongside the seven-time world champion in 2025, opening up a vacancy within the Brit's close engineering circle.

According to various reports, Cedric Michel-Grosjean will be Hamilton's next race engineer after leaving Oscar Piastri's engineering crew at McLaren in December, but the Frenchman is currently on gardening leave and has yet to link up with the Scuderia.

While the 41-year-old should have a new race engineer in his corner long before the season opener in Melbourne next month, spending pre-season with different voices in his ear could hamper Hamilton's preparation for the 2026 campaign, according to Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok.

"That confuses me, if I am perfectly honest," Chandhok said during the first pre-season test, assessing news that Bryan Bozzi would work on both Ferrari cars. "Because that relationship between driver and race engineer is so, so important."

He continued: "Really, in my experience, the good engineer-driver relationships are the unspoken things. The engineer and the driver should be able to read each other's minds.

"When one is complaining about something, the other one is already able to finish their sentences and say, 'We're going to do this, this, this, and this and change it, and that'll make it better for you'. And they haven't created a situation where Lewis is building that relationship over the winter.

"I would have loved to have seen him do simulator days, building the relationship. Go and get a TPC car - I know it is a different generation, an older car, but just go and bond, build a relationship with the new engineer.

"And you need to also integrate that person into the engineering setup of the race team, because they have to work in an environment along with the other engineers when the driver is not around. The public hears the driver-engineer discussion, but that's just a microcosm of the bigger conversations happening in that engineering office.


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