“You Can’t Tell My Story Without Including…”: Lewis Hamilton Shares Decade Long Glory With This ‘Crucial’ Mercedes F1 Colleague

Peter Bonnington, famously known as “Bono”, is one of the most crucial members of Lewis Hamilton’s team. His renowned voice, loved by fans and Hamilton alike, has contributed to many years of the Briton’s dominance. Safe to say, the driver prefers no one else than his good old race engineer to guide him through a Grand Prix every time.

F1 drivers would be lost without their race engineers. Many of them even manage to establish a special bond with the engineers in order to fully understand them. A driver’s radio race engineer should know them inside out, understanding their needs and keeping them calm and composed.

Bono is that person to Hamilton, who recently praised the Britisher on his work. In a recent post, he wrote, “You can’t tell my story without including Bono’s hard work and all the hours he’s put in. There are days when I need him to lift me up. There are days when I need to lift him up. During good times and bad, he’s there for me.”

“Our communication, what you hear on the radio and what you don’t hear in the garage, in engineering, and behind the scenes, makes a big difference. He is crucial to not only my success but the entire team’s. Forever grateful for my guy Bono, blessed to have him by my side.”

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Clearly, Hamilton wouldn’t want anyone more than Bono to guide him on that pit wall. Together, they’ve won 8 constructors and 6 driver titles, where the engineer has displayed his brilliance from time to time.

Lewis Hamilton fails to understand race engineer

Why is this particular race engineer so extraordinary and important to Hamilton’s campaign? Because the driver failed to even understand the instructions from another engineer during the Austrian GP weekend when Bonnington was not present.

When instructed by Marcus Dudley to change steering wheel settings, Hamilton said this on the radio, “That was a lot of information. I didn’t understand what you just said. I didn’t understand what you said mate, what did you say about the switch.”

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This is the impact a race engineer can have on a driver he’s been with for years. Surely, fans don’t want to see the beloved Bono go away ever.