– Juan Pablo Montoya, former Formula 1 driver and two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, has identified Peter Bonnington as an important factor in Kimi Antonelli’s current success. The 19-year-old currently leads the World Championship standings ahead of his teammate George Russell.
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“I think Bono has a big part in it,” said the 1999 CART champion in the BBC podcast “Chequered Flag.” “Bono has achieved so much with Lewis, and I believe he is shaping Kimi with his work.”
Furthermore, Montoya emphasizes: “Kimi has a very good level of aggression and is determined. If you look at him in qualifying, he uses the entire track, especially compared to the others.”
Russell could not keep up with Antonelli at the Miami Grand Prix. Shortly before the end of the race, an adjustment to the setup helped him. The Brit decided to use the last laps as a test run and adjusted his differential and brake balance to the settings of the Italian.
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“At some point, you have to try it,” Montoya notes on the topic of setup. “It doesn’t matter at all whether you feel comfortable with it or not. You just have to drive a lap with it and see if you can work with it.”
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Sky expert Timo Glock had expressed a similar opinion immediately after the race. The fact that Russell’s team only started this attempt shortly before the end of the race was incomprehensible to the DTM driver.
Antonelli was able to impress not only in Miami but also at the previous weekends in China and Japan. In total, the Mercedes driver has three season wins to his name.
Peter Bonnington is not a new face at Mercedes. “Bono” already served as race engineer for Michael Schumacher at Mercedes and was later the right hand of Lewis Hamilton. In addition, the now 51-year-old has worked in Formula 1 for Jordan, Honda, and Brawn GP.
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