The upcoming Formula 1 season will be different for Mercedes, as after 12 years and six world titles, Lewis Hamilton will not be racing for them, as he announced his departure to Ferrari for 2025. So far, it was not known whether he would be taking some of the workers who have accompanied him during this time. Finally, it has been confirmed that his race engineer during these years, Peter Bonnington will stay at Mercedes.
Hamilton will not be able to take the man who has been his right-hand man since 2013 to his new team. With ten Grands Prix remaining, the seven-time World Champion will still be able to listen to the voice of ‘Bono’ on the radio, but in 2025 he will have to take a new step in his career with a new engineer. This duo was formed since the English driver’s arrival at Mercedes and in this time together they have won six World Championships.
Mercedes has made it official that the famous race engineer, who, like Lewis, will be facing a big change, will be staying on. The silver arrow team has promoted Bonnington to the position of Head of Race Engineering, and he will take up this role with immediate effect. Hamilton will have to wait until 2025 to join Ferrari, but his engineer will take up the new role immediately.
The future for both
In 2025, Hamilton will join Ferrari. After so many years at Mercedes, the English driver has opted for a change of scenery, in order to return to the highest level of motorsport. In addition to the change of engineer, he will of course also change teammate and will line up with Charles Leclerc.
In the case of ‘Bono’, his new role starts this season, but next year he will experience a change in terms of the driver he will be working with. It is not yet known whether he will be George Russell‘s race engineer or his new teammate, who has not yet been announced. The agreement he has reached with Mercedes is very similar to the one that Gianpiero Lambiase, Max Verstappen‘s race engineer, has with Red Bull. Both combine the role of race engineer with that of Head of Race Engineering.
With this agreement, Bonnington will continue for another year at the team where he joined when it was Honda, has lived through the transformation at BrawnGP and, finally, the move to Mercedes. During this time he has worked with Hamilton, Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher. It is not yet known which driver he will work with next year and add to this prestigious list.