Toto Wolff has credited Kimi Antonelli’s race engineer, Pete ‘Bono’ Bonnington, as playing a key role in the young driver’s success, with Wolff praising Bonnington for being both a “good mentor” and a “strong boss”.
Bonnington brings a wealth of experience to his role, having previously acted as a race engineer to Michael Schumacher during the German’s stint at the Mercedes team before joining forces with Lewis Hamilton, the pair forming a memorable partnership across Hamilton’s 12 seasons at the Silver Arrows.
Following Hamilton’s departure for Ferrari, Bonnington began working with Antonelli when the Italian stepped up to Formula 1 in 2025. Now in his sophomore campaign, Antonelli’s progression has seen him score three consecutive victories, becoming F1’s youngest-ever championship leader in the process.
Speaking to the media after Antonelli’s latest win in Miami, Wolff was quizzed on how important Bonnington has been in terms of looking after the teenager on the radio, having been heard to warn Antonelli about track limits during the race.
“Bono has learned from the greats, from Schumacher to Hamilton for many years and then now to Kimi,” Wolff responded. “He’s been a good mentor to him, but also a strong boss.
“There were a few times today when he had two strikes with the track limits – I said to Bono, ‘One more and I’m gonna go on the radio’, and he said, ‘No, no, you leave that to me’. That shows he just knows how to handle it. That’s good, he’s been part of the success.”
Whilst Wolff hailed Antonelli’s performance at the Miami International Autodrome as “his best race so far”, the Team Principal also acknowledged that there is still a need to “continue to mentor” the 19-year-old.
“When you look throughout his trajectory in karting and in the junior formulae, he was just outstanding,” Wolff explained. “When you think about what we said last year, it’s exactly how his performance, how his development happened.
“We had these great ups and moments of brilliance and then moments where he was allowed to make mistakes.
“We needed to calibrate and continue to mentor him whilst having pressure on him. He’s able to analyse it, but then don’t overthink it. He compartmentalises it – ‘Okay, I made a mistake. I put it away.’
“I think all of us collectively that are close to him, we need to keep re-emphasising and repeating the message. This is a long game.”
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