Villeneuve: 'Bono' Departure a Minor Blow for Hamilton

Villeneuve downplays the impact of ‘Bono’s’ departure, highlighting Hamilton’s adaptable track record.

Mercedes F1 may be on the verge of losing Lewis Hamilton, but his race engineer, Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington, will not be following the seven-time world champion to Ferrari.

Bonnington, who has served as Hamilton’s race engineer for the majority of his career with the team, will remain in his role beyond 2025 and also receive a promotion to a senior position—as Head of Race Engineering.

As for Hamilton, the simplest solution for Ferrari would be to appoint Carlos Sainz’s current race engineer, Riccardo Adami, to the team’s new driver from 2025 onwards.

However, Jock Clear, a renowned F1 race engineer who has extensive experience with 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, is also at Ferrari—in charge of the driver academy. The Canadian would welcome such an arrangement.

“If Hamilton were to end up working with Jock, with whom he has already secured victories, it would be an easy task to manage,” stated Villeneuve, noting that Clear was part of Hamilton’s engineering team in 2013 and 2014 before the Brit moved to Maranello.

Villeneuve mentioned that not working with Bonnington next year would be a “minor blow” for Hamilton.

“Yes, because even an engineer moving teams must learn how things operate in the new environment. Hamilton has won races with different engineers. He has clinched championships with different engineers. It will also depend on whom he ends up with at Ferrari.”

“But it’s a critical relationship because it is the sole point of contact and trust for the driver and vice versa. This relationship is something that builds over time and sometimes, it never works out.”

“You can have the best engineer with the best driver and it still might not work—the chemistry might not happen, that level of trust might not establish, and you may never achieve the results.”