Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington’s surprise floors him

Lewis Hamilton‘s race engineer Peter Bonnington decided to surprise him ahead of the former’s move to Ferrari. Bonnington, popularly known as Bono, made a surprising appearance with Hamilton’s outfit from Tommy Hilfiger, and the seven-time world champion was taken aback once he saw it.

Hamilton raced his last for Mercedes at the recently concluded Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. As he parts ways with the Silver Arrows, he is also cutting work ties with Bonnington, with whom he worked for almost a decade.

Ahead of Hamilton’s final move to Maranello, Bonnington donned the seven-time world champion’s Tommy Hilfiger outfit from his paddock appearances. Upon seeing ‘Bono’ in the sky-blue denim outfit, Hamilton expressed his surprise.

The Mercedes driver uploaded a series of photos with his race engineer on his Instagram handle, with the caption :

“Two legends. Bono and Tommy.”

Hamilton is all set to move to Ferrari next season after the British driver signed a multi-year deal with the Prancing Horse earlier this year. Despite having a one-plus-one-year contract with him, he chose to race in the Scarlet Ferraris from 2025 onwards.

Lewis Hamilton is leaving Mercedes after 12 long years. He won six out of his seven F1 titles here, making it the most successful driver-team combination. Besides six titles, he clinched 84 victories, took 78 pole positions, and achieved 78 podiums.

The entire Mercedes AMG F1 team, including teammate George Russell, team principal Toto Wolff, and race engineer Peter Bonnington sent out farewell messages for the departing driver.

The 39-year-old will join his former F2 team boss, Fred Vasseur, and Monegasque driver, Charles Leclerc. He will replace Carlos Sainz, who moved to Williams.

Lewis Hamilton opened up about his relationship with Peter Bonnington

Ahead of his Ferrari move, Lewis Hamilton touched upon how close he was with Peter Bonnington, his race engineer. The duo started working together in 2013, and have been at it till the end of 2024.

“What a roller-coaster ride it’s been with Bono, he’s been one of my closest friends for many years and it is something I didn’t expect to have because he worked with Michael Schumacher, other great drivers,” Hamilton said (via Sports Illustrated).

“But he stood by me and for an engineer to stick with someone as frustrating and as painful as it can sometimes be, he stood by me every single day without failing,” he added.

Hamilton and Bonnington’s ‘Hammer-Time’ is a renowned phrase around the paddock. It came into existence after the British driver once asked Bono to say these words whenever he needed to drive faster.