Lewis Hamilton hilariously surprises Mercedes racing engineer Bono with an enthusiastic radio message

What an unexpected way to start the season for Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes man took the 183rd podium of his career and he did it in style. Mercedes had a better start to 2022 than they initially expected as their new driver George Russell was just behind Lewis in P4.

For a long time no one saw Lewis Hamilton so enthusiastic after the race. Nobody in the Silver Arrows thought they would end up taking P3 and P4 in the race after qualifying for P5 and P9 on the same weekend. Luck played a big role as two Red Bulls retired just before the end of the race.

The seven-time world champion shared his moments with his race engineer Peter Bonnington. Known as Bono, Peter is a senior race engineer at Mercedes and has a long-standing working relationship with Lewis. As Hamilton crossed the finish line, Bono took a turn to congratulate him with, “Nice work Lewis.”

Shortly after being congratulated, the delighted Hamilton exclaimed “Wooo!“It scared the race engineer as you can hear, ” WOW.

Extremely pleased with the outcome of the race, Lewis further affirmed “Let’s go. Let’s go. Yeah guys! Mega, mega job. Thank you so much for the hard work. Reliability is so important. Appreciate it. The video was shared by the official Mercedes AMG F1 Twitter account. Bono then continued with, “Well done Lewis, a long way to go but a great way to start” before the end of the video.

Why is this podium important for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes?

Hamilton ended his run last season in the most dramatic way possible. The 37-year-old had almost nothing to say after Max Verstappen passed him to bring home the championship. From there to securing third place in the most unusual way, it’s been a good day for the ex-McLaren driver.

On top of that, Mercedes now have a cushion of 27 points over rivals Red Bull after the first race. These points will certainly prove crucial in the final stages of the championship. Moreover, the championship is no longer just between Mercedes and Red Bull as Ferrari has proven to be a strong contender this year, securing a season opener double.

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As for Lewis, this podium proved to be a boost for him. The Mercedes driver is in the hunt for his eighth world championship and those 15 points will go a long way to helping him battle defending champion Max Verstappen.