Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington is Lewis Hamilton’s long-term race engineer

The role of an F1 race engineer is crucial to a driver’s weekend, but who are the voices in the ears of all 20 racers on the grid?

While some play a background role, there are others who have become famous in their own right as their radio messages reach millions of viewers. Here’s all 20 drivers and the race engineer in their ears.

Red Bull

Max Verstappen – Gianpiero ‘GP’ Lambiase

Gianpiero Lambiase, or GP as he is more commonly known, has been in Verstappen’s ear ever since the Dutchman moved up to Red Bull in 2016.

Before Verstappen, Lambiase was race engineer for Daniil Kvyat and has actually fulfilled the same role with Sergio Perez at Force India.

Born in London with a dual British-Italian nationality, GP has become known for his straight-talking style with Verstappen who has been prone to more than one outburst while on track.

But after the helmet has come off, the two have proven to be good friends, with team boss Christian Horner likening the two to an ‘old married couple’ on multiple occasions.

Sergio Perez – Hugh Bird

Hugh Bird is a one-club man having joined Red Bull in July 2012 first as a simulation and analysis engineer.

He worked his way up the ladder until he became Verstappen’s performance engineer in 2018 before moving on to be Sergio Perez’s race engineer in 2021, the same year the Mexican joined the team.

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton – Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington

Sharing the accolade of most famous race engineer along with GP is Peter Bonnignton or, as he is better known, ‘Bono’.

“My tyres are gone, Bono” has become part of the F1 lexicon and Bono’s relationship with Lewis Hamilton dates back to 2013 when the now seven-time World Champion joined the team.

Coining the phrase “it’s Hammer time”, the two clearly have a great relationship and Bono has quite the CV having fulfilled the same role for Michael Schumacher before Hamilton.

Before that, he was performance engineer for Jenson Button when he won the World Championship in 2009 for Brawn.

Bono’s F1 career dates back to the early 2000s when he joined Jordan as a data engineer before moving to Honda and linking up with Andrew Shovlin.

George Russell – Marcus Dudley

Having had Riccardo Musconi guide him through his debut year with Mercedes, Russell switched race engineers at the start of 2023 and brought in Marcus Dudley.

Dudley followed a familiar route into the role having started as a performance engineer in 2013 before moving to be race engineer after 10 years in his former role.

Dudley had previous experience of race engineering having stepped in for Bono at the Austrian Grand Prix in 2022 and the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix.

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc – Bryan Bozzi

Taking over from Xavi Marcos Padros in Charles Leclerc’s ear in May 2024 was Bryan Bozzi, who was no stranger to Formula 1 with already 12 years’ experience under his belt by the time he became Leclerc’s race engineer.

He began with Ferrari as a wind tunnel research and development engineer in 2012, and with Marcos having been moved to a different part of Ferrari, became Leclerc’s race engineer.

Carlos Sainz – Riccardo Adami

Riccardo Adami’s history in Formula 1 dates back to 2002 when he joined Minardi and became their race engineer in 2005.

After the team was taken over by Red Bull and turned into Toro Rosso, Adami continued to work in the same role, going on to work with the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo.

He would reunite with Vettel at Ferrari in 2015 and then after the German departed for Aston Martin, Adami stayed on to become race engineer for new recruit Carlos Sainz.

McLaren

Lando Norris – Will Joseph and Jose Manuel Lopez

Lando Norris is slightly unusual in that he has two race engineers with them rotating throughout the season.

One of them is Will Joseph who Norris has worked with for a long time but in 2023, Joseph began to share the role with Jose Manuel Lopez.

Team boss Andrea Stella explained this was due to the elongated calendar and McLaren’s desire to avoid burnout for their engineers.

Oscar Piastri – Tom Stallard

Oscar Piastri’s arrival into F1 saw him link up with Tom Stallard and, unlike Norris, Piastri has only heard Stallard’s voice in his ears.

Before Piastri, Stallard – an Olympic rowing silver medallist before moving into the F1 world full-time – operated in the same role for Ricciardo and first joined McLaren in September 2008 as a simulator test engineer.

He quickly moved up the ladder until he became race engineer for Button and later for Stoffel Vandoorne and Sainz.

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso – Chris Cronin

After switching to Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso was allocated to Chris Cronin as his race engineer, with Alonso previously stating the importance of a race engineer in the relationship a driver has with the team.

“I think they need to become nearly a friend of the driver,” he said.

“They’re your continuation outside the car, 100%.”

Lance Stroll – Ben Michell

Long-term fans of F1 may think that poor Brad Joyce was still Lance Stroll’s race engineer after years of memorable complaints from the Canadian but Joyce moved to become head of trackside engineering in 2021 and in his place stepped Ben Michell.

Michell started F1 life at Caterham in April 2013 before joining Toro Rosso in January 2014. It was during the COVID-hit season of 2020 that he switched to Aston Martin before getting his new role a year later.

Alpine

Esteban Ocon – Josh Peckett

Esteban Ocon and Josh Peckett have been operating in similar circles since 2016 when the latter was race engineer for Ocon’s team-mate Pascal Wehrlein. But in 2020, the two were reunited when Ocon joined Renault.

Beginning first as Ocon’s performance engineer, Peckett moved up to race engineer in February 2021 at the same time the brand switched to Alpine.

Pierre Gasly – Karel Loos

After joining Alpine, Pierre Gaslky linked up with Karel Loos who has a long history in the role.

Loos has worked with Alonso, Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen and previously worked for Lotus before joining Renault/Alpine in May 2017.

Williams

Alex Albon – James Urwin

A man with plenty of experience is Alex Albon’s race engineer James Urwin who joined Williams in 2014 as a performance engineer.

In 2017, he became race engineer for Lance Stroll before continuing on in the same role for George Russell when the young Brit joined.

When Russell moved to Mercedes, Urwin kept his place as Albon arrived.

Logan Sargeant – Gaetan Jego

Guiding Logan Sargeant through his rookie year was Gaetan Jego who fulfilled the same role for Nicholas Latifi.

Jego started his F1 career at ART Grand Prix before moving to Williams in October 2019.

RB

Yuki Tsunoda – Mattia Spini

Mattia Spini has been the man in Yuki Tsundoa’s ears since the Japanese driver’s debut in 2021.

Before that, he oversaw Kvyat and Gasly but Tsunoda’s expletive-filled rants will no doubt have been a different kind of challenge for Spini to deal with.

Daniel Ricciardo – Pierre Hamelin

A different kind of year for Pierre Hamelin who has been race engineer for three different drivers all within the space of a season.

Starting with Nyck de Vries, Hamelin then became Ricciardo’s race engineer in Hungary but when the Australian broke his hand in Zandvoort, Hamelin took on his second rookie of the year in the form of Liam Lawson.

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Valtteri Bottas – Steven Petrik

After the abrupt departure of Alex Chan in early 2024, Steven Petrik was drafted in to be Bottas’ race engineer from the Miami Grand Prix in what was described as a “sudden change” by the Finn.

Petrik had almost a decade of F1 experience with him by the time he became Bottas’ engineer, having spent eight years as a race performance engineer with Ferrari before moving across.

Zhou Guanyu – Jorn Becker

Having come together for Zhou Guanyu’s rookie season, the Chinese driver and Jorn Becker stayed together for 2023 although it was a difficult year to navigate.

Haas

Kevin Magnussen – Mark Slade

Haas made the surprise decision of breaking up their driver-engineer partnership in 2022 with Mark Slade coming in towards the end of the season to partner Kevin Magnussen.

The two did have a previous relationship, though, having worked together at Renault in 2016.

Nico Hulkenberg – Gary Gannon

Nico Hulkenberg was in safe hands when he returned to the paddock as long-term race engineer Gary Gannon guided him through the season.

Gannon’s previous job was race engineer to Mick Schumacher.