Kimi Antonelli’s F1 world title was sealed with third place at the Mexico City Grand Prix, making the 20-year-old Mercedes driver the youngest champion in Formula One history. Max Verstappen won the race for Red Bull ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, but the afternoon belonged to the Italian who finished behind them and secured the championship.
Hamilton and Verstappen, with 11 world titles between them, shared the podium with the new champion. Hamilton then lifted Antonelli into the air as the celebrations began, a reasonably clear indication that the established order had noticed the new arrival.
“It’s a very special day,” said Antonelli’s race engineer, Peter “Bono” Bonnington. Having worked with Michael Schumacher and Hamilton, Bonnington is familiar with drivers who collect championships as if shelf space were unlimited.
“I feel privileged to work with him and to put up with his pranks and tricks, including the water pistols and the rest,” he added. “It’s him all over.”
Antonelli became Italy’s first Formula One world champion since 1953. He described sharing the podium with Verstappen and Hamilton as “truly incredible”.
“I’m looking forward to more battles with them in the future,” Antonelli said. “This is just the beginning. This win is just going to mark a beginning, a new point to build on and keep improving and keep trying to win a championship.”
How racing shaped Antonelli’s childhood
Motorsport has occupied most of Antonelli’s life, largely because it also occupied his family’s. His father, Marco Antonelli, is a former racing driver and team principal who introduced him to cars early, though not always through methods likely to feature in an official parenting guide.
When Kimi was barely 10, he sat on his father’s lap behind the wheel of a competition Lamborghini. The child changed gears and steered around a circuit while Marco controlled the accelerator and brake pedals.
Two years earlier, Marco reportedly smuggled his son into the Formula One paddock by hiding him inside a stack of tyres topped with an umbrella.
“Sometimes we may look like lunatics because we just talk about racing,” Antonelli said of their relationship. “We like to analyse things together. Racing is always in our minds. We have a lot of fun together, and racing is our passion. It’s what I live for.”
Antonelli is the son of Marco and Elisabetta Antonelli, who has remained outside the public spotlight. He began karting at seven, although his father initially opposed the idea of him pursuing a professional career.
“He didn’t want me to become a driver because motorsports can be very cruel at times, especially financially, since it’s very hard to succeed without the support of the right people,” Antonelli said before last month’s United States Grand Prix.
“He taught me everything he knew, first about racing and now about life. It’s really important to have him by my side during races.”
Why Mercedes backed him so early
Gwen Lagrue, the French head of the Mercedes junior driver programme, recruited Antonelli when he was 11. Hamilton later became a mentor to the young driver.
“He’s incredibly impressive and deserves to be world champion,” Hamilton said. His own record of seven championships now provides Antonelli with a distant but highly visible target.
The Italian dominated karting in 2020 and 2021 before winning both the Italian and German Formula 4 championships in 2022. He followed those titles by becoming Formula Regional champion in 2023 while racing Formula 3 machinery.
Mercedes then moved him directly into Formula 2 for 2024, skipping the traditional Formula 3 season. Antonelli finished sixth, but the team promoted him again after Hamilton left Mercedes for Ferrari.
His rookie Formula One campaign included mistakes and contact, along with a second-place finish in São Paulo and two further podiums. He ended that season seventh in the championship.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the difficult moments were part of the expected learning process.
“I said from the start that he had tremendous talent and a great personality but that he would need a season in F1 to grow and learn through both great moments and setbacks,” Wolff said.
“He was catapulted into F1, and it wasn’t easy, even though he had always driven very well. He had to handle the pressure, the media and the expectations.”
Antonelli’s cheerful personality and fondness for jokes have also made him popular among other drivers and paddock staff. Congratulations arrived from across Italy after his championship, including messages from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, football clubs and multiple Grand Slam tennis champion Jannik Sinner. Antonelli and Sinner have repeatedly delivered victories in their respective sports on the same weekends.
The six races that defined his championship
March 15: China
At 19, Antonelli became the youngest driver to take a Formula One pole position. He converted it into his first Grand Prix victory, becoming the sport’s second-youngest race winner behind Verstappen.
May 24: Canada
George Russell started from pole, but Antonelli claimed his fourth consecutive victory. Russell retired on lap 30 with a battery and power-unit failure, losing the chance to score as many as 18 points and allowing his teammate to widen the championship gap.
June 7: Monaco
Antonelli took another pole and made it five victories from five starts with his first win on Monaco’s narrow street circuit. After six races, he led Hamilton by 66 points and Russell by 68.
September 6: Italy
In his first race after turning 20, Antonelli started 19th because of an engine penalty. He worked through the field, passed pole-sitter Russell and became the first Italian to win the Italian Grand Prix since Ludovico Scarfiotti 60 years earlier.
September 26: Azerbaijan
Antonelli hit the wall during qualifying in Baku while Russell secured pole. He recovered to finish fifth, limiting the damage from a rare mistake and continuing his progress towards the title.
October 4: Malaysia
Verstappen won as his form improved, with Antonelli finishing second. Russell had been running third before retiring in the closing laps, leaving Antonelli with an 84-point championship lead. That effectively ended Russell’s challenge and placed the title within reach.
Third place in Mexico completed the job, confirming Antonelli as Formula One’s youngest world champion and giving Italy its first title winner in more than seven decades.
