Carlo Santi
Ferrari Salary
Race Engineer to Lewis Hamilton
How Much Carlo Santi Makes as Hamilton's Ferrari Engineer
Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer earns far less than the man he talks to on the radio. Our figure for Carlo Santi’s base salary is £100k-180k ($133k-239k), and a bonus of £10k-54k ($13k-72k) would take his year to £110k-234k ($146k-310k).
His old Mercedes engineer, Peter Bonnington, sits higher than Santi on £250k-600k ($331k-795k) because he also heads a department. Santi’s 2026 posting doesn’t prove a new multi-year contract, and Ferrari hasn’t published one.
Motorsport pay survey used for the race engineer band and the 10% to 30% bonus range applied to Santi.
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Insider · Issue 23
01 · The Last Race
Singapore by Salary
Pos
Driver
Pts
Salary
1
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
25
$70m
2
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
18
$34m
3
Kimi Antonelli
Mercedes
15
$3.4m
4
Lando Norris
McLaren
12
$30m
5
Oscar Piastri
McLaren
10
$13m
6
Insider+
7
Insider+
Our Take · Insider+
What Each Point Now Costs Red Bull
How Santi Engineers Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari
Santi takes what Lewis Hamilton tells him about the car and turns it into set-up changes and run plans, backed by Ferrari’s wider engineering group. Hamilton calls him his Italian Bono, a nod to the engineer who ran his Mercedes for 12 seasons.
He knows the factory end of a race weekend unusually well. Before this job Santi led Ferrari’s remote garage in Maranello, which supports the engineers at the track in real time. His move onto Hamilton’s car was meant to be temporary, but he was still in the seat by June and remains there now.
June 2026 feature with Santi's own account of his Fiat, endurance racing and Ferrari career and his work with Hamilton.
Reports Hamilton's nickname for Santi and how his temporary 2026 posting turned into a lasting one.
Comparing Santi With Other F1 Race Engineers
Fernando Alonso’s engineer at Aston Martin, Andrew Vizard, is on the same £100k-180k ($133k-239k) band as Santi, which covers most F1 race engineers. Those with a wider brief earn more, such as Red Bull’s Gianpiero Lambiase on £350k-800k ($464k-1.1m) as head of racing.
Carlo Santi's Engineering Career Before Hamilton
Santi worked in vehicle research and endurance racing before Ferrari, and his F1 career includes a race-winning season with Kimi Räikkönen in 2018.
Where Santi Sits in Ferrari's Engineering Ranks
Within Ferrari, Santi works in track engineering under Matteo Togninalli, who’s a band higher on £180k-350k ($239k-464k). His counterpart on Leclerc’s car, Bryan Bozzi, is paid on the same scale as Santi, while Frédéric Vasseur tops the staff list on £3m-6m ($4m-8m). The Ferrari page has everyone else.
Carlo Santi Questions Fans Ask
Yes, Carlo Santi is Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer in 2026. Ferrari first gave him the job as a temporary arrangement, but he was still running Hamilton’s car by June and remains in the role. That doesn’t mean he’s signed a multi-year deal, and no contract terms have been published.
He did. Carlo Santi was part of the engineering group on Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari in 2016 and 2017, then became his race engineer in 2018. That season brought Räikkönen’s win at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, which turned out to be his last in Formula 1.
Hamilton’s nickname for Carlo Santi points back to Peter Bonnington, known as Bono, who was his race engineer at Mercedes from 2013 to 2024. Calling Santi his Italian Bono is Hamilton’s way of saying he’s found a similar partnership on the radio at Ferrari.
For Carlo Santi, our figures give a base salary of £100k-180k ($133k-239k), and a bonus of £10k-54k ($13k-72k) would take him to £110k-234k ($146k-310k). Ferrari doesn’t publish engineers’ pay, and no outlet has reported a figure for him.
Carlo Santi was 52 when Formula 1’s official site profiled him in June 2026, and 1974 is the birth year usually given for him. He’s from Verona, studied at Milan Polytechnic and has worked at Ferrari for about 15 years, with two spells as a race engineer eight years apart.