Mercedes follow 'Red Bull route': 'Bono' promotion, no Ferrari switch
F1 News
- Corwin Kunst
Peter 'Bono' Bonnington will not be moving with Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari. The Briton has been Lewis Hamilton's race engineer since 2013, but that will be for the last season this year. This is because Hamilton's 49-year-old confidant has signed a new contract with Mercedes, where he has also been promoted. Mercedes let this be known following questions from GPblog.
Bonnington will be the 'head of race engineering' at the German team from next weekend's Dutch Grand Prix. This does not mean that 'Bono' stops as Hamilton's race engineer. He will continue to be heard in the ear of the seven-time world champion this season and in 2025, too, he will provide one of the two Mercedes drivers with instructions and information during races.
Bonnington gets a similar role to 'GP'
With this, Mercedes are opting to follow the 'Red Bull route'. At the Austrian team, Gianpiero Lambiase was also promoted to 'head of race engineering' in 2022, while he also remained Max Verstappen's race engineer. Lambiase still performs that dual role to this day.
For Hamilton, it means he will have to deal with a new race engineer at Ferrari after 12 seasons with Mercedes. Riccardo Adami has been Carlos Sainz's race engineer since 2021, but whether the 50-year-old Italian will now work with Hamilton at the Maranello-based team is not yet certain.
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sarkozi
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