Lewis Hamilton’s long-serving race engineer Peter Bonnington won’t comply with him to Ferrari after accepting a promotion at Mercedes.
Bonnington, who has been Hamilton’s race engineer for the reason that driver joined Mercedes in 2013, has been named head of race engineering on the crew.
He’ll proceed to function Hamilton’s race engineer for the remainder of the yr. Bonnington may also function a race engineer once more in 2025. Hamilton confirmed earlier than the season started he’ll transfer to Ferrari subsequent yr.
Hamilton and Bonnington shaped probably the most profitable partnership between a driver and race engineer in Method 1 historical past. They’ve taken 84 race victories between them over their 11-and-a-half years collectively.
Hamilton gained the world championship six instances with Mercedes. Nevertheless, as Bonnington was unable to attend the Mexican Grand Prix for medical causes in 2019, he was not current when Hamilton gained the title that yr. Marcus Dudley substituted for him.
The pair scored their first victory collectively on the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2013 and gained not less than one race yearly till 2022, when Mercedes suffered a droop in type as F1 launched new technical laws. That win-less spell lasted two-and-a-half years till Hamilton claimed victory on the British Grand Prix final month. He and Bonnington took one other win three weeks later in Belgium, however completed second on the street to crew mate George Russell, who was later disqualified.
Earlier than working with Hamilton, Bonnington was race engineer to Michael Schumacher. He has due to this fact labored with the one two seven-times world champions in F1 historical past.
Mercedes is but to verify its driver line-up and engineer preparations for subsequent season. It’s extensively anticipated to advertise Andrea Kimi Antonelli from Method 2 to function crew mate to Russell, whose race engineer is at present Dudley.
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