Lewis Hamilton warned of ‘dangerous game to play’ ahead of Bono split

Lewis Hamilton and long-time race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington have developed a strong relationship over the course of a decade.

Despite ending their almost 12-year relationship, Rob Smedley says it’s right that Pete ‘Bono’ Bonnington isn’t following Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari.

After Hamilton announced at the beginning of the year that he’d be leaving Mercedes for Ferrari, it was speculated that his long-time race engineer Bono could follow him to Maranello.

Lewis Hamilton and Bono made the right call saying goodbye

However, PlanetF1.com revealed Hamilton had a ‘no-poaching’ clause in the driver’s contract that prevented him from trying to persuade Bono to join him.

Mercedes subsequently extended with the 49-year-old in August and promoted him to the Head of Race Engineer, which officially put an end to speculation he could be the voice in Hamilton’s ear at Ferrari.

Hamilton said at the time: “I’m so happy for Bono. I really just ultimately wanted him to do whatever was best for him. Where he is in his life, he had to make the best call for what would be best for him and for 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’re always going to be in each other’s lives. Bono’s my brother.”

Smedley, who was Felipe Massa’s long-time engineer at Ferrari before following him to Williams – although in the role of Head of Vehicle Performance – says Bono made the right call sticking with Mercedes.

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“A driver like Lewis chooses your team. When a seven-times World Champion chooses your team to come and work at your team, I don’t think he needs to bring like an entourage with him,” Smedley told the Formula For Success podcast.

“And I always spoke about this publicly, both for Lewis himself, I think, but also for people like Bono, I think that’s quite a dangerous game to play to kind of follow the driver around.

“Because if the driver falls out of favour or the driver decides that after one year this is not for him, you know, he can’t take the entourage with him. So I think that Lewis has done the right thing.

“He’d obviously have ‘Team LH’ around him, his management and trainers and people like that, but, but I think trying to take engineers would have been a bit of a misstep.”

Lewis Hamilton ‘will walk on water’ in Ferrari’s eyes

Instead, Smedley says it is up to Hamilton to embrace life as a Ferrari driver as he believes Ferrari will step their game for him.

“I think that the team will embrace him,” he continued. “I think that if you go there with a bit of a reputation like what Lewis has got for being able to deliver, the team will get around him. The team will definitely get around him.

“Then Lewis has got to do his part as well. Lewis has definitely got to play his part in endearing himself and embracing the culture of the team, and not like being on the periphery of that. And if he can do that, they will love him. Honestly, he will walk on water.

“I think the team will now feel they’ll just be able to raise their game by another one or two per cent because they’ll feel that confidence, right?

“This is a seven-times World Champion coming into your team, having chosen your team over, effectively, a team he’s been at for, let’s call it, all of his life if you take the engine part of it, suddenly he’s walking away from all of that and all of that legacy, and he’s choosing you guys.

“That gives you a massive boost of confidence. And if everybody works that half 1% harder or smarter, then you know, great things can happen.”

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