From Senna’s frogs to Antonelli’s water pistol: F1 revisits paddock pranks

Formula 1’s Halloween retrospective links Gerhard Berger’s prank on Ayrton Senna—about 50 frogs in an Australian hotel room and a make-believe snake—to Kimi Antonelli and race engineer Peter Bonnington’s running exchange at Mercedes.

Senna and Berger were McLaren teammates from 1990 to 1992. Berger spotted the frogs on a golf course during an evening run, enlisted a hotel concierge to collect them and reportedly paid $100. With help from Lisa, Ron Dennis’s wife, he scattered the frogs around Senna’s room while the Brazilian was at dinner. When Senna confronted him the next morning, Berger asked whether he had found the snake too; it did not exist. Senna later retaliated by filling Berger’s shoes with shaving foam.

The prank-and-revenge routine resurfaced at the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix. Sergio Pérez had started 17th and climbed to eighth when, on the final lap, he radioed that his car had no power. Race engineer Marco Schupbach urged him to keep pushing; Pérez revealed after the finish that the message was a joke. Schupbach then told him teammate Kamui Kobayashi had finished fourth, though Kobayashi actually crossed the line 13th. Pérez believed the false result until Schupbach revealed the counter-prank.

The exchange between Antonelli and Bonnington began at pre-season testing in Bahrain in 2025, when Antonelli celebrated his engineer’s birthday by pushing a plate of cream cake into his face. In 2026, Antonelli chased Bonnington through the paddock with a water pistol; Bonnington threatened him with a fire extinguisher and secretly added hot sauce to Antonelli’s water bottle. In May 2026, Antonelli arranged for Bonnington’s security pass at Mercedes’ Brackley headquarters to be deactivated. At the Italian Grand Prix in September 2026, Mercedes mechanics ambushed Antonelli with whipped cream to celebrate his 20th birthday.

In October 2026, Antonelli said he had yet to prank team principal Toto Wolff and that targeting his boss would take more courage. A successful championship campaign, he added, might give him an excuse.