How Does Lewis Hamilton Replace ‘Hammer Time’? Charles Leclerc Has A Suggestion | Sports News
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Lewis Hamilton and Peter Bonnington were the most popular driver-engineer pairing on the grid and were often heard on the team radio on the broadcast.
Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain attends the F1 75 Live launch event at the O2 arena in London (Picture credit: AP)
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and his race engineer at Mercedes, Peter Bonnington, or known better as Bono, made famous the phrase ‘Hammer time’ while speaking to each other during races.
Hamilton formed a strong bond with Bono at Mercedes that worked like magic for over a decade.
Bono would exclaim ‘Hammer Time’ every time the team wanted Hamilton to push just before a pit stop so that he could extract maximum performance from the car.
Since Hamilton shifted teams ahead of the upcoming season to Ferrari and got a new engineer in Ricardo Adami, the former spoke on working on a substitute to ‘Hammer Time’ at the Italian team.
“I don’t remember anything apart from Bono saying -” Hamilton said while speaking at a Ferrari event. “Come on, go on,” replied his teammate, Charles Leclerc.
“Hammer Time. I have seven days to find the words to have Ricardo say,” Hamilton said. “Tempo di Martello.” Leclerc suggested.
Hamilton and Leclerc will race beside each other till 2027 at least as they look to bring the Formula 1 title back to Ferrari.
Hamilton told The Time in February that he rejects comparisons with older drivers ‘past or present. ‘ He added, “I am hungry, driven, do not have a wife and kids. I am focused on one thing and that is winning.”
Former F1 driver Michael Schumacher came out of retirement with Mercedes in 2010 and announced he wanted an eighth title. He was outperformed by teammate Nico Rosberg in each of his three post-comeback seasons and was on the podium just once before retiring again in 2012 at 43.
Hamilton replaced Schumacher at Mercedes, and he too will have tough competition from Leclerc at Ferrari.
There is another winner this season looking to break records. Two-time winner Fernando Alonso is still an ambitious contender. His Aston Martin team is believed to be focusing on designing a car to win under the new rules next year, so he may have to wait a little longer.
If Alonso can win another title, he would be the oldest champion in almost seven decades, at 43.