Pete Bonnington makes Schumacher, Hamilton comparison after Antonelli win

Pete Bonnington sees the same clear qualities in Kimi Antonelli that he has seen while working with Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton.

Bonnington has overseen the first career victory for Antonelli, in what is a very different dynamic to his previous pairings with Schumacher and Hamilton.

Pete Bonnington: Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli relationships ‘chalk and cheese’

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Antonelli, at 19 years old, took his first career victory in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, leading a Mercedes 1-2 on a day in which the Brackley-based squad helped him “achieve his dream”.

It was a largely spotless performance from Antonelli, having taken pole position on Saturday to become the sport’s youngest ever pole-sitter.

On Sunday, he fought back against a fighting start from Lewis Hamilton to retake the lead and, from there, controlled proceedings as Hamilton got embroiled in battle with Charles Leclerc and George Russell.

While Russell recovered to second, he made little impact on Antonelli’s seven-second lead and, indeed, the Italian had opened the gap up to nine seconds when he made an error with three laps to go, locking up into the hairpin in a moment he admitted had given him a “heart attack”.

Race engineer Pete Bonnington calmly took to the team radio to tell his driver to bring the car home, which Antonelli did without any further dramas.

With Antonelli breaking down in tears as he spoke to the media immediately after the chequered flag, Bonnington was overjoyed but admitted he hadn’t been similarly brought to tears by the enormity of the moment.

This is perhaps not surprising, given Bonnington has been race engineer for Lewis Hamilton through six of his seven world titles with Mercedes between 2014 and ’20, he also worked with Michael Schumacher during his three-year career revival with Brackley, and was also Jenson Button’s race engineer in 2009.

“I was just relieved! He put the wind up me with that lock-up on the third-last lap! I just thought, ‘Really, come on,” he told Sky F1 as he gave a rare interview after his driver’s maiden win.

“But yeah, it was good. The thing is, you can’t get ahead of yourself!”

With Antonelli’s first win being a Mercedes 1-2, the podium was completed by Hamilton, marking his first Ferrari podium, making it all familiar faces for Bonnington at a moment of triumph.

“It’s pretty good. I can’t complain. Having Lewis there with Kimi was a hell of a moment, one I’ll cherish,” he said.

“It felt like it was getting the band back together, but not the band… I don’t know what the analogy is there! But yeah, it was really, really nice, really touching. And Lewis is a great sportsman.”

With Bonnington having a very different relationship with Antonelli compared to the already established Champions, such as Schumacher and Hamilton, when he first started working with them, Bonnington said both he and the Italian had to learn how to work effectively together.

“It’s chalk and cheese. With Lewis, I knew what he was thinking,” he said.

“I knew that he didn’t need to be told, whereas, when I started with Kimi, it was a case of I don’t know what he doesn’t know.

“So I’m having to re-remember loads of stuff that I took for granted. So that was a good sort of process for me. But yeah, Kimi just brings a completely different vibe.

“He’s obviously still so young, but full of energy. Really likes to bring the garage together. He’s always there with the pranks, but he fully knows when to knuckle down and work hard.”

Effectively, Bonnington has become Antonelli’s mentor during his formative years in F1, a responsibility he said he’s not taking for granted.

“Kimi is putting a lot of faith in me and a lot of trust in me, because I’ve got the experience. He’s got the youth,” he said.

“So we work differently, and I am kind of teaching him, taking him step by step through the process of how we become a champion.

“He’s just ticked off the first step. So yeah, we need to just keep chipping away.”

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Antonelli breaks down after achieving ‘one of my life goals’

Pete Bonnington compares Kimi Antonelli’s qualities with Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton.

Given his experience with established World Champions, Bonnington explained that he sees Antonelli as having the same ingredients to achieve similar highs in Formula 1.

“It’s one of those things. I read a book about the 10,000-hour rule many, many years ago,” he said.

“I sort of started really strongly believing in thinking that ‘If we all had enough practice, we’d be good enough’.

“And then I met the likes of Michael, I met the likes of Lewis. Then you realise that no, actually, no, there is the extra step, that extra tenth or two, and that’s what Kimi’s got. He’s got that extra tenth or two.

“It shows a lot in the data, in that there are the balance traces that we look at.

“When you look at it, you think, I don’t know how he’s driving the car so neutrally, yet keeping it all together and keeping the temperatures under control, yet the thing is ready to pivot on its own axis.

“It’s a thing to watch, and it’s great to see. They always come back with feedback that you think you’re able to adapt to a lot of things. Rarely do they come back and say that it needs to be turned on its head. It’s just they can adapt to stuff.”

Following the immensely popular victory, Antonelli’s father, Marco, admitted that while his son is emerging as a strong talent in F1, teammate George Russell is still the favourite for the title given his immense experience compared to the 19-year-old.

For Bonnington, there’s a chasm between winning a race and winning a title, but he’ll be there to help guide his young charge through the attempt.

“That’s going to take endurance. We’ve got two fewer races, but it’s going to take a lot of endurance,” he said.

“To win one, that’s great. To win a championship, it’s exponentially the effort that goes into it.

“I think it’s taking it a step at a time. Follow the procedures. Just think about the process. And yeah, don’t get ahead of yourself. Don’t worry. It will come if you tick all the boxes and you get everything, get your ducks in a row; it will come to you. Just focus on the task at hand. And don’t worry about the championship, it will come.”

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