Why Lewis Hamilton will not be reunited with 'Bono' at Ferrari

Perhaps the final proof that the Lewis Hamilton-Riccardo Adami relationship at Ferrari was doomed and would not continue for 2026 came in the 2025 finale. 

After yet another Q1 failure, Hamilton was in the mid-pack battling his way back to a points finish, but requested Adami not tell him who was ahead on track, which Adami did. 

Hamilton's response included "just leave me to it," with it being clear that the relationship was still suffering from the kind of teething troubles which should have been ironed out at some point during the previous 23-and-a-half grand prix weekends.

Adami, a Ferrari veteran of working with Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz, has been moved sideways into a role covering the Ferrari Driver Academy and the TPC running, whilst Hamilton's new engineer has not been announced just weeks ahead of pre-season testing before the first race in Australia in March 8th. 

But one thing is clear: Adami's replacement will not be Hamilton's trusted Mercedes lieutenant, Peter Bonnington. 

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Whilst Hamilton publicly maintained his backing of Adami through his troubled debut year at the Scuderia, it was always going to be tricky for Hamilton to adapt.

Unlike Adami who had experience of changing drivers with Vettel and Sainz, Hamilton had become accustomed to just a single voice in his ear at Mercedes for his success-laden 12-year stay at Brackley.

The Hamilton-Bonnington partnership is the most successful in F1 history, yielding six drivers' titles and 83 of Hamilton's 84 Mercedes wins, Bonnington having missed the 2019 Mexican GP. 

Upon the announcement of Hamilton's departure in February 2024, the logical question was whether Bonnington would follow his driver in trading Brackley for Maranello?

The answer, when it came, was resounding.

Bonnington, as well as being given care of Kimi Antonelli during his rookie season, was also given an enhanced brief as head of trackside performance. Hamilton would be on his own heading to Italy.

Even if Hamilton did want Ferrari to hire Bonnington to replace Adami, the Briton, who also worked as Michael Schumacher's engineer before Hamilton, he would not be in place in time for the 2026 season. 

Given Bonnington's seniority in the Mercedes engineering hierarchy, any such move would be met with an extensive gardening leave period, perhaps of a year or more, to ensure any contemporaneous sensitive Mercedes data would not make its way to the engineering table in the Italian countryside.

At the earliest, Bonnington could expect to be trackside for Ferrari in this hypothetical situation sometime in 2027, and there are no guarantees that Hamilton will still be racing in F1 at the start of what would be his 21st season if the 20th is as poor as the 19th.

Hamilton will instead head into 2026 with his third new race engineer in as many seasons as he tries to put the horror of 2025 and the ground effect cars he so detested behind him in F1's bold new era.