Why does Mercedes use the phrase "Hammertime"?

Since 2013 it is a well-known sentence, which is regularly heard on Lewis Hamilton's onboard radio. Over the years "It's Hammertime" has become more and more recognizable for many F1 fans. Peter Bonnington, Hamilton's racing engineer, explains in a video from Mercedes how he, together with the Brit of Mercedes, came to the sentence.

Because you are not allowed to indicate everything on the onboard radio, there has been a lot of thinking about what a clear message can be. It also had to be motivating. "That's how we came up with the idea of 'hammertime'," says Bonnington. A number of alternatives were devised to make it clear that Hamilton had to go faster, but only one was really clear.

Communication has to run well

"We also talked about 'Hammer down, Lewis. But that idea wasn't used in the end. Of course we could have used the simple message 'push', but that raises questions like 'how long to push'". For Bonnington and Hamilton it's clear that the communication is going well, and that's why they want to have a clear idea of what is meant on the radio.

"'Hammertime' really means you have to give everything now." Riccardo Musconi, the race engineer of Valtteri Bottas, indicates that he hasn't yet discovered that chemistry with the Finn. "Sometimes you really have to push the communication with him". Musconi has no personal 'hammertime' with Bottas.