In the thin air of Mexico City, Andrea Kimi Antonelli could finally exhale, weeping on the radio as he was declared Formula One world champion with four races left in the 2026 season.
The Italian needed just two points to secure his first title. He finished on the podium in third place before being hoisted onto the shoulders of two of F1’s greatest drivers, four-time world champion Max Verstappen and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton.
Antonelli’s numbers border on the absurd. At only 20 years and 68 days, he is the youngest champion in F1 history, eclipsing the 23 years and 134 days of Sebastian Vettel in 2010. He is the first Italian to take the crown since Alberto Ascari in 1953, ending his country’s 73-year wait for a F1 drivers’ title and the first to do it in a car built outside of Italy.
Transformation
Mercedes built the best car of F1’s new era, but the machinery only explains so much. George Russell, in an identical car alongside Antonelli, was presumed to be the favourite for the title. And yet Antonelli arrived in Mexico 123 points ahead of his teammate, armed with nine grands prix victories, five of which came in an uninterrupted run from China to Monaco. He has held a championship lead since March following the Japanese Grand Prix.
The scale of his transformation has been remarkable. Last season, he showed plenty of promise, but was an error-prone rookie who finished seventh in the final standings. In Monza, Antonellii’s home race, his own team principal criticised him, calling his weekend "underwhelming". Toto Wolff now considers his progress one of the greatest surprises of his career.
The art of folding a corner
So what makes him so formidable? The 2026 regulations helped. This season brought new cars with narrower tyres and less downforce, giving drivers less warning before they lose grip and making the rear more prone to sliding. The most delicate moment is when a driver is still braking as they turn into a corner. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained that smooth, tidy driving can cost lap time as he attempted to explain Oscar Piastri’s problems this season. These cars reward aggression.
Antonelli’s instincts and daring style suit these new cars. He attacks each bend, turning late and sharply so the car swivels quickly towards the exit, trying in his own words to “fold the corner up like a handkerchief”. His hands rarely sit still, making tiny steering adjustments that help him manage slides without losing speed. The technique works best in slower corners, but he’s had to rein it in at times and adapt to suit different circuits such as Barcelona and Silverstone.
Russell’s smoother, more measured style of driving, which proved so effective in the previous era, has proved harder to exploit this year. His preference for getting on the throttle earlier puts greater strain on the rear tyres, particularly with this season’s unusually high tyre pressures, and can consume more electrical energy. Antonelli’s aggressive approach helped him manage rear-tyre temperatures, while telemetry suggested he could also use less electrical energy exiting corners, preserving more battery power for the straights.
The rest was all about his temperament. Wolff praised the “serenity and structure” the Italian brought to the tracks this year. That’s not to say he didn’t make mistakes; his repeated track-limit infringements are something he must address, but his pace was outstanding.
Key races
The first came in Shanghai in March in only the second race of the season. On the Saturday, he became the youngest pole-sitter in the sport’s history, and on the Sunday, having surrendered the lead to Lewis Hamilton at the start, wrestled it back and dictated the race. He became the first Italian to win a Grand Prix since Giancarlo Fisichella in 2006, five months before Antonelli was born.
“I think it’s maybe come earlier than I thought,” Wolff admitted. In Bologna, Antonelli's mother, Veronica, watched her son weep on television. His family wept with him.
Antonelli wins first F1 race - in pictures
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Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli celebrates with the trophy on the podium after winning the Chinese Grand Prix. AFP -
Kimi Antonelli wipes away a tear after winning the Chinese Grand Prix. Reuters -
Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli celebrates with the trophy on the podium after winning the Chinese Grand Prix. Reuters -
Kimi Antonelli celebrates with his team. Reuters -
Kimi Antonelli, left, and Lewis Hamilton on the podium. AFP -
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli of Italy in action. EPA -
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli of Italy in action. EPA -
Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso of Spain in action. EPA -
Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Red Bull is forced to retire. Getty Images
Monza in September was a masterpiece. An engine change resulted in a grid penalty, forcing him to start from 19th at his home race. It wasn’t enough to stop him. Antonelli scythed through the field, completing 26 overtakes before reeling in Russell on older tyres and passing him three laps from the chequered flag. He became the first Italian to win the Italian Grand Prix since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966 and was hoisted onto the shoulders of the tifosi dressed in Ferrari red. Antonelli may be a Mercedes driver, but he was also one of them.
“Kimi prodigio,” ran the headline in the following morning’s Gazzetta dello Sport. His father, whose voice had all but gone, said that he hoped for fourth or fifth, but by then Antonelli was accustomed to pulling off the spectacular. “Someone up there loves him.” Antonelli celebrated by eating pasta from the trophy.
In Austin last week, Antonelli perfectly demonstrated his imperious growth. He led by more than two seconds after a single lap and was never troubled, prompting Wolff to call it “probably the best race I’ve seen”.
Wolff always believed in him
In early 2024, Hamilton told Wolff that he was leaving the team for Ferrari. Within five minutes, by Wolff’s own admission, he resolved that the 17-year-old who had yet to start a Formula 2 race would replace the most successful driver in history.
Mercedes had been tracking Antonelli since he was 11, having been alerted to his talent by Giovanni Minardi, son of the Minardi team’s founder. Minardi first spotted him karting at age eight. Mercedes talent scout Gwen Lagrue recognised his potential, and the youngster formally joined the team’s junior programme in 2019.
He went on to collect European karting crowns, Italian and German Formula 4 titles and two Formula Regional championships before being fast-tracked past Formula 3 altogether. Raw speed, Wolff likes to say, is the one quality one cannot teach. “He has that, and there are not many that have it.”
His debut didn’t go as planned. In his first Mercedes practice at Monza 2024, he set the fastest time on his opening lap and then speared into the barriers at the Parabolica. The team confirmed him as Hamilton’s successor the following day. Their faith was unwavering. “Toto did everything,” said an emotional Marco Antonelli, Kimi’s father, after his son captured his first GP win in March.
'Andy' Antonelli
Andrea Kimi Antonelli: Many have wondered if he was named Kimi after Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari’s last champion, but he wasn’t. The paddock may know him as Kimi, but at home he’s Andrea or simply "Andy".
Motor racing is in his blood. His father, a former touring car racer who runs his own team, took the family to a race at Magny-Cours while his wife, Veronica, was pregnant and the baby began kicking at the sound of engines roaring.
His father initially hoped for a different career choice, aware of the sport’s ruthless nature, and encouraged him to pursue football instead. As Kimi later explained, motorsport “can be amazing, but at the same time, can be brutal”. He eventually gave in when it became clear that his child was determined to be a racing driver.
Abu Dhabi finale
While Antonelli may have mathematically secured the championship in Mexico City, the season will close at the circuit where he claimed one of his first major single-seater titles. In February 2023, aged 16, Antonelli was crowned the inaugural Formula Regional Middle East champion at Yas Marina Circuit, driving for Mumbai Falcons.
Three years ago, he was regarded as a prodigy. On December 6, he will return as a champion, the youngest the sport has ever seen.
