Will long-time F1 ally ‘Bono’ follow Lewis Hamilton over to Ferrari?

One of the early questions being posed following Lewis Hamilton’s shock F1 switch from Mercedes to Ferrari is who might go with him?

An obvious candidate to follow Hamilton to Maranello for 2025 is the seven-time world champion’s long-time race engineer, Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington.

‘Bono’ has been a key member of Hamilton’s inner circle and the pair have formed a seemingly unbreakable bond during their decade-long stint working together at Mercedes.

As a crucial part of Hamilton’s success at Mercedes, will ‘Bono’ follow Hamilton across to help ease the transition into life at Ferrari?

That very question was put to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff when he addressed media including Crash.net on Friday morning as the dust began to settle on Hamilton’s bombshell.

"This is a discussion which everyone needs to have in the months to come,” Wolff responded.

"As much as I have spoken with Bono already, when I told him [Hamilton's decision], he said, 'Is it April 1?'. That’s something we will discuss in the future.”

After signing his two-year contract extension with Mercedes last summer, Hamilton said ‘Bono’ would be “stuck” with him.

“Yes, Bono is stuck! I’m very fortunate,” Hamilton said at the time. “Again, that’s history, as well.

“I don’t think there’s ever been an engineer and driver pairing for this long. We’re setting records.”

Hamilton is set to be reunited with French engineer Loic Serra, who Ferrari poached from Mercedes, and Fred Vasseur, who was in charge of ART Grand Prix when the Briton won the GP2 title in 2006.

“I have no doubt that Fred will be able to have a very good relationship with Lewis as his boss, no doubt about that,” Wolff added.

“They have known each other for more than 20 years, he has raced in ART and Fred understands racing drivers’ minds and he does things very differently to me, but his track record is very successful.”