Lewis Hamilton and “Bono” to part ways at F1 season’s end

Bono promoted as Mercedes head of race engineering

A new voice on the radio will be saying “Hammer time” when Lewis Hamilton moves to Scuderia Ferrari next year.

Mercedes-AMG announced that Lewis Hamilton’s long-time race engineer Pete Bonnington has been promoted as the team’s head of race engineering and will stay with the Silver Arrows for 2025.

Bonnington, or more commonly known as Bono, has been Hamilton’s race engineer since the Brit joined Mercedes from McLaren in 2013. Together, their partnership has resulted in six world titles and numerous victories, including Hamilton’s most recent wins in Silverstone and Spa.

As Hamilton departs to Ferrari at the end of the season, Bono will then serve as race engineer for one of Mercedes’ two drivers next year. So far, Mercedes is yet to announce their second driver for next season, while there’s a possibility that Bonnington could move to the George Russell side of the garage.

The resurgent Mercedes team has won three of the last four races heading into the F1 summer break. Much of that is due to the improved W15, but also the excellent strategy calls that Mercedes have done to both of their drivers during the races.

On the other hand, Ferrari is known to be more vulnerable when it comes to making crucial race decisions than Mercedes, and that is something that Hamilton will have to work on to possibly give Ferrari a chance to claim their first driver’s title since 2007.

In a sport as competitive as Formula One, it's paramount to establish a good relationship between a driver and his race engineer to deliver peak performance on both sides of the fence. The race engineer normally works with the driver to suit the car to his preference, as well as manage the strategies that determine the difference between winning and losing.

The second half of the 2024 F1 season will get back underway this weekend at Zandvoort. The question now is, who will be Hamilton’s race engineer at Ferrari?