Lewis Hamilton, George Russell reflect on Pete Bonnington staying back at Mercedes in F1 2025, as the former adds more on the topic.
Just before the summer break ended, it was notified that longtime race engineer of Hamilton – Bonnington a.k.a ‘Bono’ – will not move with him to Ferrari. Instead, the Brit would stay back at Mercedes and take up the Head of Engineering role.
While there was less expectation of it happening from the get go, but it sounds like there were deliberation and considering the massive change for Bonnington, he eventually decided what would be right for him and his family, which Hamilton understands.
“Was I hoping? I would have loved to have continued with Bono, of course, we have a great relationship,” said Hamilton to media. “You saw that at Silverstone, he’s like a brother, but I’m really, really, really happy for him. For me, I think it’s just about people doing what’s best, to do whatever’s best for you.
“Packing up and leaving, I can only imagine it’s not… him and his partner, it affects and impacts both of them. So they had to do whatever was right for him. I knew it would be an unlikely scenario that he would go with me, because it’s such a drastic change in his, but I’m really happy for us as a team.
“The team has acknowledged and made changes so he can grow more, I think he’ll now be able to show us even more of the great things he’s been doing. But, either way, we’re going to be family forever, we have spoken about it and we just want to finish it on a high,” summed up Hamilton, as teammate Russell welcomed the promotion of Bonnington.
He said: “I mean, Bono’s been obviously an integral part of the team’s success for so, so many years, and even before the Mercedes days, back at Brawn as well. And, you know, it’s great news that he’s staying on with us next year. Obviously, there’s a lot of rumours and speculation about if he would go with Lewis, but I think there’s only a real benefit to me having that promotion for Bono.
“It’s almost having an extra set of eyes overlooking the work we’re doing and I think he’s only going to strengthen our squad even further.” Furthermore, Hamilton reflected on his team at Mercedes and how it all took off smoothly since the start of his tenure.
He and Bonnington had a good base and built a relationship then on, which he has to do now at Ferrari when he goes there. He doesn’t expects many more personnel to go with him, with the likes of Loic Serra and Jock Clear already there.
“The team often does it for you, I’ve only worked with two engineering teams, like number ones in my career,” said Hamilton. “No, it’s not true actually. I had Phil Prew, I had Andy Laytham, and, when I joined this team, I just came in and Bono was the current head engineer at the time. I mean, it’s got to be someone you get on with.
“It’s got to be someone that you are able to find it easy to, ultimately, build a relationship with, and trust. So the next one, that’s going to be a discovery process. I’ll know early on whether or not it’s going to work or not, and I think it’s just about communicating. Regarding movements to Ferrari, not that I know of.
“There’s a few people there, like Loic that I’ve worked with There maybe there’s someone there that left me a long time ago was my number two, Jock. So I know him, he’s the one I know mostly there apart from Fred and then I don’t know anybody else,” summed up Hamilton.
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