Mercedes has shared a glimpse into Kimi Antonelli's playful relationship with his race engineer Peter 'Bono' Bonnington, as the 19-year-old driver played yet another prank on the Briton.
After stepping up to a full-time Formula 1 seat with Mercedes in 2025, taking the seat left behind by seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, a prank war between Antonelli and Bonnington began. It started with the Italian driver shoving a cream cake into his race engineer's face at the Bahrain test, which coincided with Bonnington's birthday.
The Mercedes driver later tracked Bonnington through the paddock armed with a water gun, repeatedly drenching him.
This time, Antonelli decided to block Bonnington's access card. "I'm blocking Bono's access card. Everywhere," he said with a cheeky grin. Once it was confirmed that the card would not work anywhere at the Brackley outfit, he said, "OK, don't change it until he tries to come in. Then say you don't know anything about it."
After Bonnington attempted to use his card, he said with a smile, "The little s*** has done it again."
The video posted by Mercedes has already been seen 1.4 million times and has amassed 228,000 likes. "The way he knew immediately," one fan commented, while another added: "Bono and Kimi gotta be my favourite driver & engineer duo on the grid rn."
"How do you explain that this little kid is the leader of the championship," wrote another viewer, and someone else posted: "I just need a whole segment of Kimi vs Bono pranks."
Antonelli currently leads the drivers' championship by 20 points over his team-mate George Russell in second place. While Russell won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and the Chinese sprint race, Antonelli won the Chinese, Japanese and Miami Grands Prix, becoming the youngest driver to lead the drivers' championship in the history of F1.
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