On Nov. 1, Andrea Kimi Antonelli became the world’s youngest ever F1 World Drivers’ Champion, shattering a record set by Sebastian Vettel back in 2010, along with 228 others, but how did he make it here?
Antonelli’s racing career began early: his father started training him at age five, and two years later, in May 2015, Antonelli made his karting debut in the Easykart 60cc Championship, where he won his debut final from the back of the grid.
By the age of seven, Antonelli was racing in the junior WSK karting circuits and dominated there as well. He took home a championship in 2019. That same year, he was recruited to the Mercedes development driver program at the age of 12. After this, he moved up in the FIA Karting European Championships, winning consecutive titles in 2020 and 2021.
Formula Circuits
Following this, Antonelli made his debut in single-seater racing in the lower tier of Formula 4. The following year, he won both the Italian F4 and ADAC F4 championships. In 2023, Antonelli won both the Formula Regional Middle Eastern and Formula Regional European Championships for a consecutive double victory.
This success was noted by the executive team at Mercedes, and they allowed Antonelli to bypass Formula 3 and promoted him directly to Formula 2 for the 2024 season. Here, he began setting records as the youngest driver to win multiple races in F2 history.
Antonelli’s Formula 1 Career
Despite not winning the F2 championship that year, due to the departure of seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes, after Antonelli’s appearance in free practice 1 at the Italian Grand Prix, Mercedes announced his promotion to an F1 driver seat for the 2025 season.
The 2025 season began with the Australian Grand Prix, which was not a good race for the majority of the drivers. Due to the heavy rain, there were a multitude of DNFs, with only two rookies able to complete the race: Antonelli in the top 10 and his close friend Oliver Bearman in 14th.
He had an incredible rookie season in 2025, with ups and downs, totaling 4 DNFs and finishing 7th in the driver standings for the WDC.
2026 Season: The WDC
The 2026 season started with the Australian Grand Prix, where Antonelli faced a crash in Free Practice 3, took a P2 start, and finished second on the podium alongside his teammate George Russell for a Mercedes 1-2. The following week in China, their positions flipped, with Antonelli in first and Russell in second, with Antonelli setting his first record of the season as the youngest pole-sitter in F1 history.
Following this, in Japan, he converted another pole position to a podium, making him the youngest ever championship leader in F1 history at 19 years old. In Miami, he faced a P6 in the sprint, earned pole position for the Grand Prix, and took another first place, becoming the first driver to convert their first 3 pole positions to wins.
Come the battle in Canada, with a Russell pole position being lost due to power unit failure, resulting in another win for Antonelli. Luckily for Russell, he was able to win the sprint the day before to keep the gap from getting too large. In Monaco, we saw a similar result, with Antonelli taking home another dominant victory, and the loss for Russell turning their gap into a bigger deficit due to penalties that took him out of the points.
Barcelona saw a staggering different result, with Antonelli having to retire the car and suddenly pull off the track due to an unspecified mechanical issue. Despite the lead he carried over his opponents, Antonelli still felt down about his retirement for round 7.
The next two rounds in Austria and Great Britain posed a challenge for Antonelli. In Austria, he settled for P3 behind Russell and Max Verstappen. At Silverstone, he managed to pull off a sprint race win, but due to a wheel shield failure and a track limits penalty, he finished P16, and reduced his lead to only 25 points.
Rounds 10 and 11 saw victory in Belgium, followed by a struggle in Hungary, where he managed to pull through his P7 start to a P3 podium finish thanks to a Virtual Safety Car (VSC). Luckily, these results helped to keep his dominant lead in the battle for points. His Round 12 in the Netherlands saw him P2 behind reigning champion Lando Norris.
Round 13 in Italy showed off a different level of skill from the young driver. Antonelli began at 19th toward the back of the grid due to engine penalties. Despite a lack of hope and a wish to merely finish in the points, Antonelli pulled through for an incredible victory, with many comparing him to his opponent Verstappen, given his success on the circuit.
Spain saw yet another victory for Antonelli, thanks to a well-timed safety car stealing the lead from Norris. However, Baku saw struggles as he crashed during Q1 of qualifying, leaving him to start 16th on the grid and being unable to recover it during the race.
Closing In On The 2026 Season
The Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia was difficult for all drivers due to rain and impossible track conditions, but despite all of this, with another retirement from Russell, Antonelli pulled out a P2 and managed to build a bigger gap on the leaderboard.
In Singapore, Antonelli finished fourth in the sprint race and pulled out a podium finish. It was at this point that it became mathematically possible for Antonelli to take the championship with one race. Going into the next round, everyone knew that he could take home the victory the following week.
The United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas proved to be just short of what Antonelli needed to secure that victory. Antonelli faced a flawless weekend, and with Russell and Hamilton placing just one position above the minimum for Antonelli to win, they delayed the inevitable by just one week, holding him off from the WDC by a mere two points.
The Mexico Grand Prix proved to be anything but boring, with multiple yellow flags and a full red flag due to Valtteri Bottas’ high-impact collision with a barrier at Turn 1. Antonelli finished on the podium, knocking back Charles Leclerc to take home the championship. The podium saw a total of 12 titles that day between Verstappen, Hamilton, and Antonelli.
With 4 remaining races, we wait to see the final standings of drivers and constructors solidified in the points, and for the WDC trophy to be handed to our new world champion, who ended a 73-year drought of Italian champions. Grande Kimi!
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