Peter Bonnington reveals “stern conversation” that transformed Kimi Antonelli’s F1 career

Novembro 2, 2026 lojamais44@gmail.com

Kimi Antonelli’s race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington has revealed that a “really stern conversation” helped turn around the Italian driver’s rookie Formula 1 season, a year before he became the 2026 world champion.

Antonelli finished third at last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, which was enough to secure his maiden title. While speaking to F1 TV after the race, Bonnington reflected on how Antonelli overcame a challenging debut season with Mercedes in 2025 to dominate in 2026.

“That’s one of the amazing things or amazing experiences that we actually benefited from, because the fact is that you learn from your bad days and that’s what he’s really good at doing, is just learning,” Bonnington explained of Antonelli’s difficult spell during the European season in 2025.

“We had a really stern conversation at the end of the European season. And then we got into the flyaways again and all of a sudden he was just like, ‘Why didn’t you give me a kick up the arse sooner?’ And so, yeah, it was tough times, but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and he really did bounce back from those.”

While his team-mate George Russell entered the 2026 season as a clear favourite for the title, Antonelli took the lead of the championship at the third round after back-to-back wins at the Chinese and Japanese Grands Prix.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

Despite many assuming the title pressure would get the better of him, the 20-year-old went from strength to strength. He has won nine grands prix so far this season.

Bonnington, who has previously worked with seven-time champions Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher, said managing a driver was as much a part of his role as managing the car.

“People have said before, especially back in the day, ‘Why don’t you have a sports psychologist working with drivers?’ and you’re like, well, that’s kind of what the race engineer has to do. Half of the job is looking after the car, the other half is keeping the driver happy.

“So yeah, he’s an easy guy to keep happy. It’s a pleasure working with him, but also guiding him through the ups and downs of it, especially last year. It’s just part of the job. Some are better at it than others.”