"Never call your partner by your ex’s name": Fans react to Pete Bonnington mistakenly calling Kimi Antonelli 'Lewis Hamilton' on team radio

Lewis Hamilton's former race engineer Pete Bonnington mistakenly referred to Kimi Antonelli as 'Lewis' during qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, and fans have reacted hilariously to this slip up by 'Bono'. The British engineer is now working with the Italian rookie at the Silver Arrows.

It was decided that Pete Bonnington would stay on at Mercedes and not move along with Lewis Hamilton over to Ferrari. The Briton has now assumed the role of Kimi Antonelli's senior race engineer and has also been handed the responsibility of Head of Race Engineering by the German team.

Bonnington was Hamilton's race engineer ever since the 7x F1 champion made his move to Mercedes back in 2014. His move to Ferrari broke up one of the most iconic driver-engineer partnerships on the grid. But it seems old habits die hard as Bonnington referred to Antonelli as 'Lewis' during the Chinese GP qualifying, before quickly correcting himself.

X account @fiagirly posted the clip of the hilarious moment, in which 'Bono' could be heard replying to Antonelli.

"Yeah, copy that, Lewis—copy that, Kimi," said Bonnington, quickly correcting himself.

Fans reacted to this moment with some hilarious replies.

"Never call your partner by your ex’s name", said one fan.

"Ngl I’d be calling HR if I were Kimi lmao", joked another fan.

"Old habits die hard they say …", said another user.

A few fans also shared their emotional feelings about hearing Bono still saying Hamilton's name, alluding to their bond.

"IM SOBBING CRYING AND TEARING UP ☹️🥹", said another fan.

"Aaah man ❤️ 12 year muscle memory", wrote another fan.

"Bono needs to move to Ferrari & stop playin", said yet another fan.

Pete Bonnington has been at the Brackley-based F1 team since 2006, when it was known as Honda. He then worked as Jenson Button's performance engineer as the team transitioned into Brawn in 2009. He then became Michael Schumacher's performance engineer when the German joined Mercedes in 2010, before taking up the role as his race engineer.

Finally, he took up the role of Lewis Hamilton's race engineer when the Briton replaced the outgoing Schumacher in 2013.

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Lewis Hamilton recently shared if he would still use Pete Bonnington's famous 'hammer-time' phrase at Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton and Pete Bonnington after the British Grand Prix, 2024 - Source: Getty

Lewis Hamilton shared that he would probably have to find an Italian replacement for 'hammer-time', as he is unsure how it would sound in the Italian accent of his new Ferrari engineer Riccardo Adami.

During the glorious years of the Hamilton-Mercedes partnership, Bonnington would come over the radio and say, "Lewis, it's Hammer-time," and while it simply meant Hamilton was allowed to push his car more, it became an iconic saying and almost a catchphrase for the team.

Hamilton was asked if the iconic phrase would return with a different engineer at Ferrari, and he said:

"I haven’t spoken to my engineer about that. I don’t know how it would sound with an Italian accent, so I’ll have to find an Italian word, probably. We’ll probably find something new." [via Racing News 365]

Hamilton got off to a brilliant start in China, grabbing the Sprint Pole and subsequently the Sprint win as well to claim his first win with Ferrari. For the main race though, the Italian team has locked out the third row, with Hamilton in 5th and his teammate Charles Leclerc in 6th.