MEXICO CITY — Lewis Hamilton will be without his long-term race engineer Peter Bonnington as he vies for his sixth world championship in Mexico City on Sunday.
Bonnington will miss both the Mexican and United States Grands Prix to undergo a personal medical procedure in the U.K., meaning there is a high chance he won’t be at the track when Hamilton wraps up this year’s title.
Hamilton’s usual performance engineer, Marcus Dudley, will step up into the role of race engineer in Bonnington’s absence, while Dom Riefstahl, who usually runs the team’s engineering support room back at Mercedes’ factory, will stand in as performance engineer on Hamilton’s side of the garage.
Hamilton has worked with Bonnington, known as ‘Bono’ within the team, since he joined Mercedes in 2013 and the pair have won four world championships together.
Bonnington has been a part of Mercedes since the German manufacturer returned to the sport in 2010 and was also at the team when it won the 2009 title under the Brawn GP name.
Bonnington shares a close bond with Hamilton and is often heard on team radio talking his driver through race strategy and setting changes on the car.
Race engineers also play a large part in determining car setup, which is crucial to performance over a race weekend. Hamilton needs to outscore his teammate Valtteri Bottas by 14 points to secure the championship this weekend – a tough task in normal conditions.
However, it is likely he will secure the title at the following round in Austin, Texas.