'Blow to Hamilton, 'Bono' may not join Ferrari'

Rumors

peter bonnington may not join ferrari engineer lewis hamilton stays
16 March at 11:00
  • GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton may have to go without his trusted engineer, Peter Bonnington, in 2025. The Italian racing team reportedly prefers to see the Briton working with someone already closer to Ferrari's team, Formula Uno Analisi Technica reports.

The engineer, better known as Bono, will have to stay in Brackley. Hamilton's engineer has a so-called 'anti-poaching' clause, which means he cannot simply be snatched away by another team. Peter Bonnington has been the Briton's engineer since Hamilton started racing for Mercedes.

The engineer started his career in Formula 1 as a data engineer at Jordan, now Aston Martin. He has also assisted drivers such as Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher in various roles. Together at Mercedes, Hamilton and Bonnington won six world championships.

Who will be Hamilton's new engineer?

Ferrari would rather see Riccardo Adami work with Hamilton. Adami has been part of Formula 1 for 22 years. The 50-year-old Italian started his career with Minardi and stayed with the team when it was renamed Toro Rosso. Here he worked with drivers such as Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel. He met the latter again in 2015 when Adami made the move to Ferrari, where he has been Carlos Sainz's race engineer since 2021.

In any case, Frederic Vasseur is all over it, and Riccardo Adami is sufficiently prepared to work with Lewis Hamilton. Although the Briton will have to change, he is reportedly happy with his future race engineer.