12-Year-Old Conversation With Peter Bonnington Reveals Riccardo Adami Had It Better With Lewis Hamilton on His First Race

Lewis Hamilton, Peter Bonnington (L) and Riccardo Adami (R)

During his 12 years at Mercedes, and through the dynasty he etched with the Silver Arrows bagging six world titles, Lewis Hamilton’s relationship with his former race engineer, Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington became a classic.

Many even hailed their partnership as the best the sport had ever seen. With Hamilton moving to Ferrari, though, that chapter came to a close, and people eagerly waited to see how he would get on with his new race engineer, Riccardo Adami.

That said, it was a trial by fire for Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz’s former race engineer.

Hamilton wasn’t really comfortable with this new pairing, and lashed out several times at the Italian during their first race together in Australia. But even if it seems like there is a lot of work required between the duo to accommodate each other, an example from Hamilton’s maiden Mercedes season shows that there is no reason why Adami cannot reach Bono’s level.

A thread doing the rounds of X (formerly Twitter) showed the team radio exchanges between Hamilton and Bono from the 2013 season. Just as was the case at the Australian GP, last weekend, the Briton wasn’t too happy with Bono’s race engineering.

Unable to be on the same wavelength, and unhappy with the level of feedback on the radio, the #44 driver asked Bono to “let me drive, man”.

Adami was on the receiving end of some similar feedback about his race engineering from Hamilton, however, this time, the seven-time world champion was much cooler in his demeanor.

Ferrari team principal, Frederic Vasseur also acknowledged that the duo needed to get to know each other better. “It was the first race, the first time that we have to communicate between the pit wall and the car, and we can do a better job and know each other more,” he explained as per ESPN.

In F1, the relationship between a driver and a race engineer is crucial to success. That said, it is based fundamentally on trust and affinity which takes time to form between them, and hence, Adami and Hamilton will only get better together as the season progresses.

Post Edited By: Aishwary Gaonkar
ferrari Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Peter Bonnington Ricardo Adami

About the author

Anirban Aly Mandal

Anirban Aly Mandal is an F1 writer at The SportsRush, with over 1000 articles under his belt, Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 on his computer. With over half a decade's worth of time spent religiously following the sport, he’s dived deep into the world of motorsports. However, Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports and the law. His passion for the sport is so immense that he aspires to work as a legal advisor in the most prestigious racing series in the world someday. When it comes to Formula 1, Anirban finds great pleasure in re-watching classic races and idolizes the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Sebastian Vettel. His top picks include Brazil '91, Silverstone '92, and Germany '19. Outside of the sport, Anirban is an avid sim racer, often found racing on titles like Assetto Corsa, F1 22, and Automobilista. Apart from his interests in gaming, Anirban has a keen interest in philosophy, literature and music.

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