Kimi Antonelli has become Formula 1's youngest world champion, with Formula 1 marking the achievement after the Mexico GP. The Mercedes driver, who turned 20 in August, takes the record from Sebastian Vettel by three years. His title also ends a long Italian wait: the last Italian world champion was Alberto Ascari, who won with Ferrari in 1953.
Antonelli's 2026 campaign has been dominant. He won nine of the first 18 races, including five in a row in China, Japan, Miami, Canada and Monaco, and took 15 podiums with only two retirements. After his ninth win, in Austin, he was two points from the title. The decisive moment came in Mexico.
That run followed a measured rookie season in 2025, when he finished seventh with 150 points, three podiums and a best result of second in São Paulo. He had arrived at Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton's replacement and said at his presentation that he wanted to be known as Kimi Antonelli, not as Hamilton's successor. Mercedes had faced criticism for backing him after he went off in his first Formula 1 practice run at Monza in 2024.
Antonelli was born in Bologna, the son of former driver Marco Antonelli, who founded Antonelli Motorsport and later AKM Motorsport, and Veronica Pomaro, who worked for Italy's postal service before joining the family racing operation. His younger sister, Maggie, is a rhythmic gymnast. The name Kimi was not a reference to Kimi Räikkönen: it was chosen by his parents, with input from former driver Enrico Bertaggia, because it was short, foreign and suited the family surname.
He was first put in a kart at two, began competing at five and was taken to his first Formula 1 race at Hockenheim after persistently asking his father. At 12 he was called for a Ferrari Driver Academy test but was considered too small, a decision that opened the way for Mercedes to sign him in April 2019. He won European karting championships in 2020 and 2021, then took the Italian and German Formula 4 titles with Prema, with more than 20 wins across the two series. In 2023 he won titles in the Middle East and Europe in the transition category before finishing sixth in Formula 2 in 2024, with wins at Silverstone and Hungary and a podium in Baku.
His inspiration is Ayrton Senna, whose No. 12 he still uses and whose 1984 autograph he once received as a gift. Off track, Antonelli has kept up studies in International Relations and Marketing and has a routine of washing his own car before each race weekend. He also once entered a secret kart race at Daytona Milton Keynes, near Silverstone, under a pseudonym; his lap times gave him away, and he ended the day signing autographs and taking selfies after receiving two penalties for pressing his rivals too hard and missing the podium.
Sources: Observador.