Juan Pablo Montoya pinpoints major factor in Kimi Antonelli's F1 success

Former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya has argued that Peter 'Bono' Bonnington is a "big part" of Kimi Antonelli's impressive form at Mercedes. 

After a heavily scrutinised start to his F1 career, which included a high-profile crash during his FP1 debut at Monza, Antonelli has firmly found his feet at Mercedes.

The 19-year-old became the youngest driver to lead the standings in the history of the championship, and has now extended the gap to his team-mate George Russell in second to 20 points.

While 1996 F1 champion Damon Hill described Antonelli's win at the Miami Grand Prix as "stupendous", Montoya, who joined Hill on the BBC Chequered Flag Podcast, pointed to the support from Bonnington as a major factor in Antonelli's success.

"I think Bono is a big part of it," he said. "I think Bono has won so much with Lewis, and I think he's moulding Kimi and working with Kimi."

He added: "What Kimi has that's really good is the aggression level, he's determined. If you look at him in qualifying, the amount of track he was using compared to everybody else, he was using the whole track.

Peter Bonnington, Race Engineer, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

"I was surprised when you look at George and George has the videos, the data and everything, and he can see where Kimi is going and everything. At some point, you need to try it, and whether you're comfortable or not is a different story, but you at least need to stick it out there for a lap and see how you can make it work."

Bonnington previously worked with Michael Schumacher, initially as his performance engineer at Mercedes before becoming his race engineer in September 2011.

After the German driver retired at the end of 2012, Bonnington became the senior race engineer for Lewis Hamilton. He remained with Hamilton until he left the Brackley outfit at the end of 2024, and the pair celebrated six of Hamilton's seven drivers' championship titles together.