Formula 1 drivers are nothing without the team behind them. Which makes the relationship between a driver and their race engineer the most crucial one in the sport.
For every single driver on the track, their race engineer is their human link to the army of people behind them – in the garage and back at the team’s factory. Engineers are relied on to relay information, provide encouragement or offer words of sympathy when things go wrong. They are a driver’s best friend while out on the circuit – more so than their team mate.
The most successful driver-engineer pairing of all time has just completed its 10th season and is still going strong.
Peter Bonnington has been a familiar voice over the radio on the Mercedes pit wall. Before working with Hamilton – a future seven-time world champion – Bonnington had the honour of engineering Formula 1’s only other seven-time champion, Michael Schumacher, during his final season in 2012. When Schumacher retired, Hamilton moved from McLaren’s Woking factory to Mercedes’ base in Brackley and Bonnington remained in his role to ease their new driver into the team.
Naturally, some fine-tuning of the relationship was necessary to begin with. Just a handful of laps into his very first grand prix in a Mercedes, Hamilton came over the radio to ask for more regular lap time updates as he tried to nurse his Pirelli tyres around the Albert Park circuit.
But nine races later, Hamilton and Bonnington scored their first success together at the Hungaroring, the driver claiming his first win in Mercedes silver.
“Get in there, Lewis. Get in there. That’s P1, man,” Bonnington praised his driver – the genesis of what would become his trademark radio call that symbolises Hamilton’s entire Mercedes career.
The following year the V6 turbo era began and Hamilton got his first opportunity to fight for a championship with his new team. Mercedes arrived with comfortably the best power unit and car in the field and Hamilton and Bonnington took full advantage. They won over half the races and took 16 podiums on the way to clinching the championship ahead of the other Mercedes, driven by Nico Rosberg, at the final round in Abu Dhabi.
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