Mercedes have announced that Lewis Hamilton’s senior race engineer Peter Bonnington is to remain with the team, with his responsibilities increased into a new capacity.
The 49-year-old, who has worked for the Brackley-based squad since its inception in 2010, will be moved into the role of head of of race engineering, and will begin the role immediately, in conjunction with his current position.
Mercedes have also confirmed that Bonnington will also continue in this capacity, and will become race engineer for either George Russell or Hamilton’s as-yet-unknown replacement with the silver arrows, thought to be 17-year-old Italian Formula 2 star, Kimi Antonelli.
The announcement ends previous speculation that Bonnington may link-up with Hamilton when the Briton joins Ferrari from next season, having announced his move in February.
The pair have enjoyed a close friendship across the 11 years Hamilton has been with German marque, a time which has yielded six Drivers’ titles for Hamilton – adding to his previous one with McLaren in 2008 – and eight Constructors’ titles.
Hamilton will join the prancing horse to a plethora of familiar faces, such as Fred Vasseur – co-founder of Hamilton’s GP2 team ART – and former Mercedes engineers Loic Serra and Jock Clear, but today’s announcement confirms that Bonnington will not make the move to Maranello alongside them.
This now leaves Riccardo Adami poised to become Hamilton’s engineer. The Italian has been with Ferrari since 2015, becoming race engineer for Hamilton’s long-time rival and friend, Sebastian Vettel.
Since 2021, Adami has continued in the role for Carlos Sainz, the man Hamilton will replace.
Bonnington, affectionately known as ‘Bono’, began his career in Formula 1 with Jordan in 2004 as a data engineer, before moving to Honda, working under current Mercedes colleague Andrew Shovlin.
Bonnington’s career, like so many at Honda, looked uncertain as the Japanese outfit pulled-out of F1 at the end of 2008, due to constraints caused by that year’s global financial crash.
However, he was reprieved by Ross Brawn, who bought the team, naming it Brawn GP, which won the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships in its first and only season in 2009.
When the team then became Mercedes, Bonnington worked as Schumacher’s performance engineer, before being moved-up to senior race engineer.
The previous two seasons have brought little success, with Red Bull dominating the sport, but this year has seen a brighter upturn in fortunes with Hamilton taking wins at Silverstone – his first since Jeddah in 2021 – and at Spa-Francorchamps.
