There were a lot of emotions running through Lewis Hamilton’s mind during his final outing for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi last Sunday. Bidding farewell to a team he had been with for 11 years must have been tough, but the end of one partnership in particular—his relationship with race engineer Peter Bonnington—would have been especially hard on him.
While they shared their innate thoughts and said their goodbyes on the team radio, there was some lighthearted banter exchanged earlier in the weekend. A video published by Sky Sports showed a snippet of Hamilton taking a jibe at the man who had been a constant presence in his ear throughout his Mercedes career.
“Saw a picture the other day, you are with [Michael] Schumacher. You’re ancient mate. You’ve been around forever”, Hamilton said. Bono chuckled as well, recalling his time with Schumacher at the Brackley-based outfit before Hamilton joined in 2013.
What a relationship! Hamilton Bono pic.twitter.com/c67HZZrAMV
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) December 8, 2024
Bonnington (also known as ‘Bono’) was Schumacher’s performance engineer when the German legend made a brief return to F1 with Mercedes from 2010 to 2012. He was eventually promoted to Schumacher’s race engineer until his exit and later took on the same role for Hamilton.
Bono soon rose to the position of senior race engineer at Mercedes, and his partnership with Hamilton became widely celebrated. Known for his calm demeanor in high-pressure situations, Bono often helped Hamilton fans watching from home feel at ease. While there have been occasional differences of opinion, Hamilton and Bonnington have remained as close as ever over the years.
Bonnington’s F1 career- past, present, and future
It was Hamilton’s dominant success that made Bonnington a popular race engineer in the sport. However, his career dated way back before Hamilton even raced in F2.
Bonnington started his career at Jordan in 2004 where he served as a data engineer. Moving over to Honda, he became Jenson Button’s performance engineer and was in that role when the Briton won the 2009 World Championship when the team got rebranded to Brawn GP.
He remained with the Brackley outfit as Mercedes took over Brawn and has been an integral part of the team ever since. He played a key role in helping Hamilton secure six titles and also developed a close bond in the process.
However, Bonnington is staying put at Mercedes despite Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari. Rumors suggested that the Italian outfit had attempted to poach Bonnington as part of Hamilton’s entourage heading to Maranello. To retain him, Mercedes promoted Bonnington to Head of Race Engineering.
