With Lewis Hamilton’s time at Mercedes coming to an end, his iconic partnership with long-time race engineer Peter Bonnington will also end. Bonnington won’t move to Ferrari with Hamilton, and Riccardo Adami has been tipped to become the seven-time world champion’s new race engineer.
As reported by Formu1a.uno, Ferrari has assigned Adami to Hamilton already. But, the Italian engineer is not sure if he wants to stay at the Maranello-based outfit.
Adami was Sebastian Vettel’s race engineer at Ferrari, before partnering up with Carlos Sainz in 2021. For the last four years, he has been the voice in the Madrid-born driver’s ears, and has guided him to three race wins.
Ferrari a déjà confié à Lewis Hamilton l’ingénieur de course Riccardo Adami pour 2025.
Cependant, même s’il n’y a pas de problème avec Hamilton, Adami prend une période de réflexion avant de donner à l’équipe une réponse définitive sur son avenir au sein de Ferrari. pic.twitter.com/Mcle4WTanp
— Scuderia Ferrari FRA (@FerrariF1FRA) August 22, 2024
But with Sainz moving to Williams in four months, Adami has reportedly entered a “period of reflection”.
Hamilton hasn’t publicly stated the fact that he will be okay with Adami as his race engineer. Replacing Bonnington (also known as Bono) won’t be easy, but Hamilton wants someone with whom he can connect.
For the Briton, Bonnington would have been the best choice at Ferrari. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t able to convince him.
Hamilton’s unsuccessful attempt at taking Bono to Ferrari
Formu1a.uno also reports that Hamilton tried taking Bonnington to Italy with him, but the 49-year-old decided to accept Mercedes’ contract renewal offer instead.
He will take on a new role — Head of Race Engineering, similar to Max Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
“I’m genuinely so happy for Bono… we’re always going to be in each others lives”
Lewis on Bono’s promotion at Mercedes, meaning he will not join the seven-time world champion at Ferrari pic.twitter.com/7uuoyZTXPx
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 22, 2024
Mercedes saw Bonnington as an invaluable asset, and confirmed the move earlier this month. They also revealed that he would remain the trackside race engineer for “one of two Mercedes drivers”.
It seems as though Kimi Antonelli will be the driver who pairs up with Bonnington. Multiple sources have confirmed that Mercedes will make an official announcement revealing him as their driver from 2025 onwards in the coming weeks.
