Lewis Hamilton has admitted he will “know early on whether it’s going to work” with his Ferrari Formula 1 race engineer with Peter Bonnington to remain at Mercedes.
It was revealed earlier this week that Bonnington, Hamilton’s race engineer throughout the latter’s spell with the team, will remain at Mercedes in a promoted position.
Bonnington, who’s been with the Brackley-based team since mid-2000, has been the voice in Hamilton’s ear that has helped guide the latter to six titles with Mercedes.
However, their successful partnership will come to an end once this season concludes as Hamilton prepares to embark upon a much-anticipated venture with Ferrari.
Hamilton has expressed that he would’ve “loved” to have maintained his relationship with the man nicknamed ‘Bono’, but he was aware it was going to be improbable.
Instead, the seven-time F1 champion is pleased that his long-serving right-hand man’s work across a protracted period has been recognised with a move up the ranks.
“Was I hoping [to continue with Bonnington]? I would have loved to have continued with Bono, of course,” Hamilton said. “We have a great relationship.
“He’s like a brother. But I’m really, really, really happy for him. For me, I think it’s just about people doing what’s best for you. You have to do whatever’s best for you.
“Packing up and leaving, I can only imagine it’s not him and his partner. And it impacts both of them. So they have to do whatever’s right for him.
“So I knew it would be an unlikely scenario that he would go with me because it’s such a drastic change in his life.
“But I’m really happy for us if the team have acknowledged and made changes to his pathway within the team. So he can grow more within us.
“I think he’ll now be able to show them even more of the great things he can do.
“But either way, we’re going to be with your family forever. So we’ve spoken about it. We just want to make sure we finish on a high note.”
Hamilton is now poised to be paired with Riccardo Adami, an Italian engineer who worked with Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari and has since overseen Carlos Sainz’s side.
But the Briton has stressed there are no guarantees that he and his new engineer will forge a strong relationship – something he will be able to gauge from the outset.
“When I joined this team, I just came in and Bono was the current head engineer at the time,” he recalled.
“It’s got to be someone you get on with. It’s got to be someone that you ultimately are able to find it easy to build a relationship with and trust.
“So the next one, that’s going to be a discovery process. I’ll know early on whether or not it’s going to work or not. I think it’s just about communicating.”
Hamilton has cited that developing that partnership with a race engineer at a new team will be more challenging as his Mercedes deal prohibits contact with Ferrari.
“It’s tough,” he acknowledged. “That makes it pretty difficult.
“I think it’s probably the same for anyone moving into a new office. It’s not until you go. It’ll be very heavy-loaded starting next year.”
Hamilton’s arrival will see him reunite with Loic Serra, who will depart Mercedes to commence work as Ferrari’s Head of Chassis Performance Engineering in October.
The ex-McLaren racer is not anticipating that more Mercedes members will be making the move over to Maranello, though, to smoothen his inevitable acclimatisation.
Asked whether he was expecting more personnel to replicate his switch, he responsed: “Not that I know of. There’s a few people that are going, like Loic that I work with.
“There’s someone there that left me a long time ago as my number two job. So I know him.
“He’s the one I know mostly there apart from Fred [Vasseur, Ferrari Team Principal]. And then I don’t know anybody else.”
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