Hamilton leaves this piece of F1 history behind at Mercedes

19:19, 27 Feb 2025
1 Comments
During Lewis Hamilton's remarkably successful partnership with his Mercedes race engineer, Peter Bonnington, not only did they put together a timeless legacy of wins, poles and championship together, but they also created a phrase that often preceded many of those on-track successes and that will resonate with F1 fans for years to come: "It's Hammertime."
When Bono needed his driver to push, the race engineer need only to say that phrase in the radio. Subsequently Hamilton would set the timesheets a-blaze pushing on to create or cover a gap, or to overtake the driver ahead for the win.

"It's Hammertime," is in the past

During a post testing session conversation with Sky Sports, Hamilton was asked regarding the future of the popular phrase. More specifically, would it have one? "I haven't spoken to my engineer about that," the Ferrari driver admits.
Entertaining the thought, Hamilton then ponders on it further: "I don't know how it would sound with an Italian accent. So I have to find an Italian word probably. We'll probably find something new, yes," revealing that the popular phrase would not be making the switch over to Ferrari alongside him.
ADVERTISEMENT
Want more Formula 1? Then follow GPblog on our various social media channels too!
loading
Japanese Grand Prix
Overview
Upcoming race
Friday 27.03.26
Practice 1
Fri 02:30 AM
Practice 2
Fri 06:00 AM
Saturday 28.03.26
Practice 3
Sat 02:30 AM
Qualification
Sat 06:00 AM
Sunday 29.03.26
Race
Sun 05:00 AM

Loading