Pete Bonnington snubbed Lewis Hamilton for a shot to be Kimi Antonelli's race engineer: Reports

Recent reports claim that Lewis Hamilton's race engineer, Peter "Bono" Bonnington, will eventually work with Kimi Antonelli when the Italian joins Mercedes. The report further adds that Bono took up a new challenge despite Lewis Hamilton urging him to stay with him.

Ever since Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013, Bono has been the Brit's senior race engineer. Before Hamilton, he worked with several F1 drivers like Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button, Timo Glock, and more. However, he is most notably known for being alongside Hamilton, helping him win 105 races and seven world championships to date.

In February 2024, Ferrari shocked the entire F1 space by announcing that they would hire Lewis Hamilton in 2025. This marked the 2024 F1 season as the last year Hamilton would race for Mercedes. The Silver Arrows team is currently looking towards their junior Kimi Antonelli to fill Hamilton's massive shoes. However, nothing has been confirmed as of yet.

According to reports from formu1a.uno, Lewis Hamilton tried to convince Peter Bonnington to come with him to Maranello. The report further claimed that Bono has decided to stay with Mercedes and is now a top candidate to become Antonelli's race engineer, if and when he joins the F1 team.

The report goes on to explain how Bono was present during Antonelli's F1 test sessions at Spa and was thoroughly impressed by the youngster's on-track pace and data. It added that this could have also swayed him away from joining Ferrari with Hamilton.

As of now, neither Kimi Antonelli's arrival in Mercedes nor Bono's future has been officially confirmed by any of the concerned parties.

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Lewis Hamilton opens up about his relationship with his race engineer Peter Bonnington

A few months ago, Lewis Hamilton talked about his race engineer, Peter "Bono" Bonnington, during a fan interaction during the Miami GP. The seven-time world champion praised the British race engineer and how they have worked together through multiple ups and downs in their careers and lives.

"Bono and I, we've been through thick and thin together, and I love the guy. We've had such a great relationship. I think we have the longest standing engineer and driver relationship that's ever been in our sport. And that's something I'm really proud of," Hamilton said.

"But just how you turn up weekend in weekend out is really key... He’s just head down at the desk always. And he’s just like my right hand man, he’s next to me all the time. So, trying to make sure I deliver as much as I can this year for the team," he added.

As of now, Hamilton stands in sixth place in the drivers' championship table with 150 points.