Peter Bonnington ends speculation of moving to Ferrari with Lewis Hamilton after signing a contract extension with Mercedes

As per the latest developments, Mercedes has offered Peter Bonnington, Lewis Hamilton's race engineer, a promotion. This has come amid speculations of Bonnington's move to Ferrari. However, with a promotion in place, the race engineer is unlikely to move out with Hamilton going to the Scuderia at the end of the season.

With Hamilton set to part ways with it, rumors surfaced earlier this year that the Silver Arrows' British engineer Bonnington might switch sides along with the seven-time world champion at the end of this year's campaign. The reports added that Bonnington would be Hamilton's race engineer on the Maranello-based team.

However, with a promotion in place, it is no longer the likely scenario. Toto Wolff's team has promoted Bonnington as the head of race engineers. He will continue to be Hamilton's race engineer till the end of the season.

Peter Bonnington, also known as Bono, has been working with Lewis Hamilton for 12 years. He has been the race engineer for the British driver since his arrival at the team from McLaren in 2013. Together, they helped Mercedes claim eight Constructors' Championships and Hamilton six Drivers' titles.

As things stand, 2025 will see Hamilton and Bonnington part ways, and the F1 paddock will no longer hear "its hammer time" from the latter. It will be interesting to see if Ferrari appoints Carlos Sainz's current race engineer Riccardo Adami for Hamilton, or brings in someone new when the most successful F1 driver jumps ship after more than a decade with the Brackley-based team.

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Charles Leclerc warns Lewis Hamilton ahead of his mega move

Charles Leclerc has warned of the danger Lewis Hamilton can come across at Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton (R) of Mercedes and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari at the 2024 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain. Source: Getty Images.

The Monegasque driver is set to be Hamilton's teammate from 2025 onwards, and had a few words of caution for the latter while speaking to Autosport.

"The fact that we are Ferrari in general, whenever something happens at Ferrari, it always creates more of a mess than in any other teams," Leclerc said. "This is where we need to be good, that whenever we are in those moments, we just focus on ourselves, try to take the noise away, learn from it and use it positively. But I hope that we don't have too many of them."

Ferrari and Hamilton agreed on a multi-year deal worth $446 million in February this year. As the Scuderia looks forward to returning to its glory days, signing statistically the most successful F1 driver could be the first step forward.