“We're always going to be in each other's lives": Lewis Hamilton has a heartwarming response to Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington’s Mercedes promotion 

Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton gave a heartwarming response to the recent announcement that his longtime race engineer, Peter 'Bono' Bonnington, would remain with Mercedes beyond the 2024 season. Following Hamilton's bombshell announcement to join Ferrari, rumors linked Bono to the Italian team.

However, Mercedes announced Bono's promotion to head of race engineering, ensuring he would stay with the Brackley-based team.

Ahead of the Dutch GP, Hamilton addressed the recent announcement and said that he was "genuinely happy" for Bono. He noted that the 49-year-old race engineer had to make the best decision for his family.

Despite parting ways next season, Hamilton insisted that his move to Ferrari would not affect his relationship with his "brother" Bono. However, he admitted it would be sad not to work with him every day. Speaking on Sky Sports F1, the veteran Mercedes driver said:

"I'm genuinely so happy for Bono. I really just ultimately wanted him to do whatever is best for him. Where he is in his life, he had to make the best call for what would be best for him and his family."

"That doesn't change anything really between us. We don't get to work together, next to each other every day, which will be sad for both of us. It's going to be emotional, but we are always going to be in each other's lives, Bono's my brother," he added.

Hamilton added that this is a great opportunity for Bono and called him a valuable asset for Mercedes.

"I'm really happy that the team have taken him on and he's got this great opportunity to grow more within the team, because he's such a great asset for the team," Hamilton said.

Peter Bonnington, known for his iconic 'It's hammer time' catchphrase, won six titles, 84 races, and 78 pole positions with Lewis Hamilton. The duo most recently shared the podium after Hamilton's victory at the British GP.

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Lewis Hamilton on discussions with Bono about a potential Ferrari move

Lewis Hamilton revealed that he didn't have any discussions with Bono about the prospect of joining Ferrari. He mentioned that they "jokingly" considered such a scenario many years ago but didn't have such conversations following the Ferrari announcement.

The veteran Mercedes driver said in the aforementioned interview:

"I think we probably, like seven years ago or maybe five years ago or something like that, I remember there was like a joke that, it would be amazing to be there one day. But no, not had any discussions about it."

Hamilton was previously reported to work with Carlos Sainz's current race engineer, Riccardo Adami at Ferrari. Meanwhile, Peter Bonnington is set to be the race engineer for Hamilton's successor, having worked with both 7x champions Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton.