Bonnington's stern talk with Antonelli sparked the turnaround that led to his 2026 F1 title

Kimi Antonelli’s Formula 1 world title did not arrive without a crisis point. Race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington has disclosed that a frank dressing-down at the end of the 2025 European season helped rescue Antonelli’s troubled rookie campaign and set him on the path to the 2026 championship, secured with a third-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix.

Bonnington, speaking after the title-clinching race, described the exchange in Antonelli’s own words. “We had a really stern conversation at the end of the European season,” Bonnington recalled. “And then we got into the flyaways again and all of a sudden he was just like, ‘Why didn’t you give me a kick up the arse sooner?’”

Antonelli had entered the 2025 season as Mercedes’ highly touted replacement for Lewis Hamilton, but struggled through the European rounds of his debut year. The response, once the conversation had been had, was immediate. By the time the 2026 season opened, the Italian had transformed into a title contender, taking the championship lead at the third round with back-to-back victories at the Chinese and Japanese Grands Prix.

Team-mate George Russell had been the pre-season favourite, yet Antonelli, still only 20, went from strength to strength under pressure. He has won nine grands prix in 2026 alone.

Bonnington, who previously engineered both Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher to world titles, was candid about the psychological dimension of his role. “Half of the job is looking after the car, the other half is keeping the driver happy,” he said. “People have said before, ‘Why don’t you have a sports psychologist working with drivers?’ — well, that’s kind of what the race engineer has to do.”

The engineer was careful to credit Antonelli’s own capacity for self-improvement as the real driver of the turnaround. “You learn from your bad days and that’s what he’s really good at doing, is just learning,” Bonnington said. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and he really did bounce back from those.”

Antonelli becomes one of the youngest Formula 1 world champions in the sport’s history, and Bonnington — now a title-winner with three different drivers across three generations — suggested the 20-year-old made the process as straightforward as it could be. “He’s an easy guy to keep happy. It’s a pleasure working with him.”