Mercedes engineer causes a stir with Lewis Hamilton slip-up

Lewis Hamilton may have now secured his first victory as a Ferrari driver, but it is still taking some getting used to seeing him in red.

After all, it has only been just over two months since we first saw Hamilton and those first iconic images of him wearing a Ferrari race suit for the first time, after 12 years as a Mercedes driver.

The seven-time F1 champion has at least avoided the embarrassment of pulling into the wrong pit box over the first two grand prix weekends so far.

It seems, though, that some habits do die hard, as the saying goes. You only have to ask Pete Bonnington about that one.

Bonnington, or 'Bono' as he is occasionally referred to, was Hamilton's race engineer throughout the years the seven-time F1 champion raced for Mercedes. The duo developed a very close relationship.

With Hamilton gone and working with a new race engineer at Ferrari in Riccardo Adami, and attempting to build a rapport with the Italian, so Bonnington is working with a new driver in Kimi Antonelli.

It is early days, and Hamilton has not long left the building, so Bonnington can perhaps be forgiven for his amusing slip-up during qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Over the radio at one stage, after Antonelli had made a comment, Bonnington replied: "Yeah. Copy that, Lewis." Quickly realising his mistake, he then said: "Copy that Kimi."

You can imagine Bonnington's red face, and likely amusement in the Mercedes garage at that one.