Having a strong relationship with your race engineer is key to success in Formula 1, with champions such as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen having worked with the current race engineers, Peter Bonnington and Gianpiero Lambiase, for a number of years.
Bonnington has been working with Hamilton ever since he signed for Mercedes, with the pair developing a close friendship and strong understanding of one another which has contributed to the 38-year-old’s success.
Hamilton’s teammate George Russell will be working with his third race engineer in three seasons this year however, as the Brit makes a chance ahead of the 2023 season.
During his successful stint with Williams, Russell always worked with James Urwin, who managed to get the best out of the youngster before his move to Mercedes.
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Following his move to the Silver Arrows, Russell spent last season working with Riccardo Musconi, who had been working as Valtteri Bottas’ race engineer since 2019.
Russell will now be forced to adapt to working with a different race engineer once again, as Musconi has moved on from Mercedes’ race operations.
The Italian helped Russell settle in at Mercedes and oversaw his maiden win in Brazil, the Silver Arrows’ only win of last season.
Marcus Dudley will be replacing Musconi this year, with the new man making the step up from a performance engineer role with the team.
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Dudley is not entirely new to the role however, having stood in for Peter Bonnington as Hamilton’s race engineer in Austria last year as well as in Mexico all the way back in 2019.
Forming a bond with a new member of staff can take time, with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda even going to a camp in Dubai this winter just to help him get used to working with his new trainer.
Russell will be hoping that the switch from Musconi to Dudley is a smooth one, as the Brit will be on the hunt for victories this season after proving that he is more than capable of challenging the best in the sport last year.