Hamilton: Bono one of few people that can truly stand me

The relationship between Hamilton and Bonnington, aka Bono, has been witnessed by everyone over the years with it ups and downs, good times and bad.

Six of Hamilton's seven F1 Titles were with Mercedes and were achieved with Bono by his side, as the driver now aims at achieving that elusive eighth Title with his trusted race engineer again in 2023.

Quoted by F1's official website, Hamilton reflected on his journey with Bonnignton; he began: "I’m incredibly grateful for Bono. I’ve had an amazing journey with him, I think we’ve got one of the longest, if not the longest standing driver-engineer partnerships that there’s been, and he’s been hugely integral to my success.

"We’ve had an amazing journey together, we’ve supported each other on and off-track, through good and bad times, and I love working with Bono; he’s like a brother to me, a brother from another mother," the Briton added.

Hamilton has been quite grumpy with Bono on several occasions during races, but the engineer was always cool, accommodating, while soaking up the pressure.

Hamilton explained why; he pointed out: "I think he’s probably one of the few people that can truly stand me, I would say, on the good and bad days – except for Roscoe [Hamilton's dog] – and how calm he’s able to be throughout a race, and how he’s able to help guide and help me navigate through a race. I don’t think there’s many people that can do that."

A famous phrase of communication between the driver and his engineer is "Hammer Time", which was the code word for put you foot down, and Hamilton explained how that phrase came about.

"I think I came up with Hammer time," he said. "I think because there was a point where he was like, ‘Now it’s time to push’, and I got frustrated with it because I’m like: 'Dude I’m already pushing!'

"But I was like, if you’re trying to signify ‘now’s the time to go all out, use everything you have’, just tell me it’s 'Hammer time'. That was part of the growth we had," the 38-year-old revealed.

Hamilton is yet to renew his contract with Mercedes beyond the 2023 F1 season, with both he and the team expressing their will to continue together, so for how long will the Lewis/Bono pairing go on?