With Max Verstappen increasingly likely to stay at Red Bull, Toto Wolff is reportedly on the verge of signing Andrea Kimi Antonelli to replace Lewis Hamilton. The Italian impressed the Mercedes crew in the multiple F1 tests conducted by the team. Antonelli, along with inheriting Hamilton’s seat, is also likely to inherit the seven-time champion’s greatest asset and that is Peter Bonnington.
Formu1a.com reported, “Peter Bonnington, Lewis Hamilton’s historic and current track engineer, who was extremely impressed by the qualities of the young Italian driver and is now in pole position to become his track engineer, with whom he has already worked, for example, in the latest tests carried out at Spa.”
Peter Bonnington is in pole position to become Kimi Antonelli race engineer.
At Spa, Bono worked alongside Kimi in his latest test and was highly impressed by the young Italian driver’s abilities.
This has also caused him to rule out the idea of joining Ferrari, even though… pic.twitter.com/iVuL5NCu4L
— F1_MercHub (@F1MercHub) August 14, 2024
Bono worked alongside Antonelli at the Spa Francorchamps test and was impressed by the Italian’s capabilities. Bonnington’s F1 future remained uncertain after Hamilton announced his move to Ferrari. Reports suggested that the seven-time champion tried until the last moment to convince Bono to move to Ferrari along with him.
Nonetheless, the latest reports suggest that Hamilton’s current engineer is not interested in switching teams after Antonelli’s latest tests. With Bono most likely staying at Mercedes, Antonelli is likely to benefit immensely from the British engineer’s years of experience in helping Hamilton win multiple titles.
Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes contract likely to be announced at the Italian GP
Antonelli is believed to have already signed a contract behind the doors with Toto Wolff and Co. However, the announcement will reportedly be made at the Italian GP.
Mercedes has a history of making big announcements at the Italian GP. Last year, the team announced Russell and Hamilton’s contract extension at Monza.
As for this year, a ceremony is believed to take place in Monza between Hamilton and Antonelli. According to RTL, “A symbolic mini-handover ceremony is expected between Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli.” The handover is symbolic of Hamilton passing the baton to the young Italian.
