Lewis Hamilton’s secret weapon inside the Mercedes garage

James Vowles, who worked with Hamilton on his strategy, has left Mercedes to take over as Williams team principal - it remains to be seen how his exit affects the team.

But ‘Bono’ remains for an 11th consecutive season alongside Hamilton as his engineer.

• The details of Lewis Hamilton's phone call to James Vowles

“I’m incredibly grateful for Bono,” the seven-time world champion said. 

“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.

“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]!

“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.”

Hamilton insisted about the duo’s trademark phrase: “I think I came up with Hammer Time!

“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.”

Hamilton and Bono have won six drivers’ championships and eight constructors’ championships together.