Andrea Kimi Antonelli has secured the 2026 Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship by finishing third in the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix.
At just 20 years and 68 days old, it makes Antonelli the youngest ever driver to win an F1 title, smashing numerous other records in the process.
The Mercedes-AMG Petronas star had all but secured his Drivers’ Championship ahead of the race in Mexico, only needing to finish ninth to mark his title lead insurmountable.
Following Antonelli’s victory in the preceding United States Grand Prix, it became a case of when the Italian driver would become champion, rather than ‘if’.
Antonelli could thus ignore the drama ahead of him on-track, securing the crown with a third place finish in a race won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Kimi has now surpassed Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to become F1’s youngest champion. Incredibly, he has beaten the previous record holder, Vettel, by more than three years.
Mercedes-AMG’s gamble pays off
Kimi Antonelli only entered his first Grand Prix at the start of the 2025 season, having completed two free practice sessions for the Mercedes team in 2024.
Following his debut at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, Antonelli became the third youngest F1 driver in history, and he has continued to smash age-related records ever since.
His achievements have proven the Mercedes-AMG team right to gamble on the teenager, who had only gained his driving licence six weeks before he took to the track in Australia.
However, being signed to the Mercedes Junior Team at the age of just 12, while he was still competing in karts, showed the German manufacturer was confident in the young driver’s talent.
Directly replacing Sir Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes F1, and without spending time at a lower-ranking team to gain experience, placed an enormous amount of pressure on Antonelli in his debut 2025 season.
‘Not bad for a number two driver’
Throughout his first year in F1, Antonelli achieved numerous firsts, such as being the youngest driver to lead a lap and set a fastest lap, along with claiming the most points in a debut season.
Heading into 2026, with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas W17 emerging as the car to beat, Antonelli essentially demoted his more experienced team mate, George Russell, to the number two role.
Such was Antonelli’s prodigious pace during 2026 that, with nine race wins, he has already achieved more Grand Prix victories in a single season than Russell has claimed in his entire career.
In what should have been a year that allowed Russell to walk towards a Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship with relative ease, Antonelli’s ability swiftly turned the British driver into the bridesmaid.
The sky is the limit for Antonelli
Antonelli’s title success came after a dramatic race weekend in Mexico City, which saw a collision between Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson during Friday practice.
Esteban Ocon was also bizarrely dropped from the TGR Haas F1 Team ahead of the qualifying session, replaced by Ryo Hirakawa.
In addition, Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas suffered a terrifying suspension failure during the race, when braking from more than 200mph into turn one at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Although the collision prompted a red flag, the veteran Finnish driver was able to walk away.
None of this seemed to faze the young Italian, however, who handled the pressure of being on the cusp of being crowned champion with a degree of calm and levelheadedness beyond his years.
Perhaps the biggest question now is, at just 20 years old, how much can Kimi Antonelli achieve in Formula 1? It seem likely that, having broken numerous records in his first two seasons, we will keep hearing his name for many more to come.
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