Kimi Antonelli grateful of having a common link between him, Lewis Hamilton, and Michael Schumacher

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli mentioned that he was privileged to be working with race engineer Peter Bonnington, who had previously worked with seven-time F1 world champions Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton. The 18-year-old joined the German team at the beginning of 2025, replacing Hamilton, who made the move to Ferrari.

There had been a lot of anticipation regarding Antonelli's debut on the grid as he had made a name for himself in the junior categories. The Bologna-born driver was personally chosen by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff as the replacement for the departing Hamilton.

After taking the Brit's place in the team, Kimi Antonelli was also allocated Peter Bonnington as his race engineer at the Brackley-based outfit. Bonnington, popularly known as Bono, had worked with Michael Schumacher in the early 2010s and Lewis Hamilton from 2013 to 2024.

Speaking with F1.com, during the Chinese Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli spoke about his feelings about having a race engineer who had worked with two of the best F1 drivers, saying:

“I think having someone like Bono, it’s amazing. It’s a very big privilege because he has worked with two of the best drivers in the history of Formula 1 – he worked with Michael and then he worked with Lewis for so many years.

"So having someone with so much knowledge and experience really helps you because obviously I’ve so many new scenarios that I will have to go through, so many new scenarios that I will have to face, so many new things that I will have to learn, and having someone like him that has so much experience."

Peter Bonnington had been in the ear of Lewis Hamilton through each of his six world titles that the latter won in Mercedes.

Mercedes F1 director highlights Peter Bonnington's influence on Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin, stated that Kimi Antonelli had benefitted from Peter Bonnington's experience in his first two races with the German team.

As per RacingNews365, the Mercedes man reflected on the young Italian and said:

"He's a brilliant fit in the team, and it's difficult to come in after a driver who's been as successful as Lewis has. For Kimi, it's still really early days in his F1 career. Now happily, he's got an extremely experienced race engineer with Bono who's helping him work out how to approach the weekends, how you build your speed and how you work on the car setup."

Kimi Antonelli has made a positive start to his F1 career, as he has scored points in both races thus far. He sits in P5 in the driver's standings with 22 points and has a gap of 13 points to his teammate, George Russell.