“It’s hammer time” For some years, the formula-1-Fans listen to this almost legendary radio message from race engineer Peter Bonnington to his driver Lewis Hamilton. In a from the Mercedes Team released a Video Bono has revealed, “” the story behind it. Since the prohibition of the technical notes to the driver during a race in the world, have allowed Federation FIA single words as motivation to help: “And so we came to hammer time.”

First, the version of “Hammer down, Lewis was” (Let the Hammer fall) in the conversation, but it was lost again. “Push” was a variant, but there could come the question: How much? “Hammer time” was clear: “It means, give it your all, now,” said Bonnington, in the works since 2013, with Hamilton together.

Something comparable Riccardo Musconi, the race engineer of team-mate Valtteri Bottas has not, so far, in the offer. All of the radio traffic with the rather taciturn Finns was much more monosyllabic than with other drivers. “Sometimes you have to communication is actually a push,” said Musconi. Nevertheless, he wants to have a Finnish counterpart to the “hammer time” come to mind: “I’ll think about it.”

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