World Champion Kimi Antonelli: record-breaker, heart-breaker, the Tifosi’s dream

It’s done: a third-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix has secured the World Championship title for Kimi Antonelli. At 20 years, 2 months and 6 days, he is the youngest Formula 1 champion, beating Sebastian Vettel’s record by more than three years (23 April 2011 in Abu Dhabi).

Kimi had this to say about Vettel’s first world title: “I can’t remember it. I mean, I was four years old – I was more interested in my Hot Wheels toy cars back then!”

“As I got older, I naturally watched the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It was a mad title battle back then with Hamilton, Webber, Alonso and, of course, Vettel. Unbelievable – four drivers still in with a chance of the title going into the final race.”

Becoming world champion in his second Formula 1 season – before Kimi, only Juan Manuel Fangio, Jacques Villeneuve and Lewis Hamilton had managed that. The first-year champion was Giuseppe Farina, when the Formula 1 World Championship made its debut in 1950.

With 7 pole positions, 7 fastest laps, 9 wins and 16 podium finishes, it’s crystal clear who the most successful driver of the season is.

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World Champion Kimi Antonelli: record-breaker, heart-breaker, the Tifosi’s dream

With his third-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli has become the youngest of the 36 Formula 1 world champions to date. The 20-year-old Italian is on a record-breaking run. The Tifosi are dreaming of Antonelli in a Ferrari.

Mathias Brunner

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Kimi Antonelli is the first Formula 1 champion to have been born after 2000.

Antonelli is the third Italian Formula 1 World Champion after Giuseppe Farina (1950) and Alberto Ascari (1952/1953). This also makes him the first Italian ‘campione’ in 73 years!

Racing legend Mario Andretti, born in Montona (then in Italy, now in Croatia), says of the incoming champion Antonelli: “I’m a huge fan. I’m really thrilled by what Kimi is showing; it’s a spectacle for anyone who loves Formula 1. Soon he’ll be the fourth Italian to win a world championship, after me, Ascari and Farina.”

Mario starts to laugh: “Well, of course I know I’m not on the list of Italian world champions, because officially I’m considered American, but I also feel deeply Italian, and that’s why I’m delighted that Antonelli is joining the ranks of the world champions. He’s proved that he’s got everything it takes to be great, even though he’s so young.”

Verstappen in 2024, Norris in 2025, Antonelli in 2026: for the first time since Hamilton in 2008, Button in 2009 and Vettel in 2010, we’ve had three different champions in three years.

Antonelli is also the fourth Mercedes champion in Formula 1, following Juan Manuel Fangio (1954/1955), Lewis Hamilton (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) and Nico Rosberg (2016).

Kimi Antonelli, the Formula 1 record-breaker

Kimi is not only the youngest Formula 1 champion, he has also broken these records.

Youngest driver to lead a race: Japan 2025, aged 18 years and 225 days.

Youngest driver to set the fastest lap in a race: also in Japan 2025.

Youngest driver to take pole position in an F1 Sprint: Miami 2025, aged 18 years and 250 days.

Youngest driver to take pole position: China 2026, aged 19 years and 202 days

Youngest driver to win from pole position: China 2026.

Youngest driver to achieve pole position, victory and the fastest lap in the same Grand Prix: China 2026.

Youngest championship leader: China 2026.

Youngest driver to win two consecutive Grands Prix: China and Japan 2026, aged 19 years and 216 days.

Youngest driver to secure pole position, a start-to-finish victory and the fastest lap: Monaco 2026, aged 19 years and 286 days.

Youngest driver to win four more races immediately after his first victory: China, Japan, Miami, Canada, Monaco.

Youngest Sprint winner: Great Britain 2026, aged 19 years and 313 days.

Kimi Antonelli, the heartthrob of Formula 1

Kimi Antonelli has won the hearts of many, and not just those of female Formula 1 fans. The Bolognese driver’s refreshing manner is simply disarming. Antonelli is no PR-department-style, streamlined spouter of clichés; instead, his answers are open and honest. The 20-year-old is authentic, curious, always up for a laugh, yet utterly serious when it comes to his job.

Thanks to his family – and above all his dad Marco – Antonelli is extremely down-to-earth; there’s not a trace of a sportsman who’s starting to let it all go to his head. Yes, he was already a Grand Prix winner as a teenager, but that doesn’t mean he thinks he’s better than anyone else.

His development from his first to his second year in Formula 1 has been truly astonishing, even physically: when he first sat in a Grand Prix car, he looked like a toothpick; now he’s a bundle of muscles.

I don’t know anyone in the paddock who would have a bad word to say about Antonelli. His team loves him; his rivals respect him.

When you get to know Antonelli, it quickly becomes clear that he is a young man who has been brought up with very good values at home.

His father, Marco Antonelli – Kimi’s constant companion at racetracks around the world – reminisced with our colleague Giulia Toninelli from *La Gazzetta dello Sport* about some experiences from Kimi’s childhood, starting with a scene from when his son was still a baby.

“We were at the Sarno circuit in 2007. Kimi had just turned one, and we’d taken him along to this event organised by a company specialising in road cars, racing cars and go-karts.”

“There were lots of guests there, and I remember that at one point, during a break, I got behind the wheel of a go-kart and sat him on my lap. At that age, children are usually frightened by the noise, but at the end of the lap, Veronica, his mum, lifted him out of the kart, and Kimi immediately started crying because he didn’t want to take his little hands off the steering wheel.”

“Another time, when he was ten years old and still sitting on my lap, we did a few laps of the circuit in Adria in a Lamborghini Super Trofeo. I braked and accelerated, whilst he changed gear. At one point we were working together perfectly, driving quite fast, and went into oversteer at the first braking point on the track: he brought it under control perfectly, as if he’d done it dozens of times before. That’s when I realised just how talented he was.”

But Formula 1 was a long way off back then, as Marco Antonelli points out: “We never regarded the premier class as a goal that had to be achieved at any cost. Motorsport has always been part of our everyday life as a family, so Kimi started racing with the same attitude with which we run our team.”

“Then came Formula 1, thanks to the talent Kimi demonstrated, but also thanks to a bit of luck that Mercedes believed in him. However, we never even entertained the idea of getting to where we are now – you only have to bear in mind that my son’s dream as a child wasn’t to drive in Formula 1, but in the DTM!”

And now, at the age of 20, this Kimi is World Champion. Marco Antonelli: “We always tried not to think about the title. We worked the way we always have: we focus on one race at a time and try to maximise the results when we can’t win.”

Marco’s wishes for his son: “First and foremost, good health – something we far too often take for granted. In 2026, we said goodbye to a young racing driver who was only 39 years old (Cedric Sbirrazzuoli, the editors) and who fell victim to an illness; he had also driven for my team in the past, and events like this put our priorities back in the right order.”

“I also hope that Kimi stays just as he is – kind and generous – and that he can keep doing what he loves for as long as possible.”

When will Kimi Antonelli drive for Ferrari?

What about that question from some Tifosi: why is Kimi in a Mercedes and not in a Ferrari? Here’s how it came about…

Former Ferrari boss Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, like Kimi, hails from Bologna and wrote in the *Corriere della Sera* about what he regrets regarding Antonelli.

Montezemolo was honest: “It does bother me a bit to see him in a Mercedes. I’d love to see him in a Ferrari.”

But why is that, actually? Did Ferrari simply overlook the young Kimi when scouting for talent? Or was someone asleep at the wheel?

Montezemolo told Sky Italia: “I know that our sporting director at the time, Massimo Rivola, intended to sign Antonelli.”

Giovanni Minardi (son of team founder Giancarlo Minardi) told *La Gazzetta dello Sport*: “We started working on this early on, aiming to get Kimi into a junior programme as quickly as possible. We spoke to both Ferrari and Mercedes – it was important to act wisely and choose the partner who could offer the best guarantees.”

Marco Antonelli told the Formula Passion website: “Kimi was eleven years old and was even allowed to try out the simulator in Maranello – the very same one that had been developed for the students at Ferrari’s Driver Academy. Everything was in place to secure my son a place at Ferrari.”

“But Maurizio Arrivabene, then head of the racing department, ultimately said my son was still too young for the junior programme. A few months later, Mercedes got in touch with us, and the rest is history.”

Mercedes got everything right with their early support for Kimi Antonelli, and the Italian has a brilliant career ahead of him.

But I maintain that, sooner or later, Kimi Antonelli will be driving a Ferrari.

Montezemolo, now 79, told the Bologna-based daily newspaper *Il Resto del Carlino*: “Kimi’s performance is already changing the history of motor racing and Italian sport. And I say that as someone who, in my long time at Ferrari, never had the opportunity to chase the title alongside an Italian driver. I do feel a little sorry about it, but back then two winning drivers like Michele Alboreto and Riccardo Patrese were already nearing the end of their careers, and there were no Italians of their calibre coming through at that time.’

“With Kimi, we can sense the full strength of his family. We live in times when social disintegration stems precisely from the first unit of society: the family. Kimi is fortunate to have grown up with parents who have instilled in him sound values for life. I’d like to emphasise this, regardless of his sporting results, and it makes me particularly proud that this young man, alongside his roots in Bologna, is also a part of me. Sometimes I think: it’s absolutely mad that the first heir to Formula 1 world champion Alberto Ascari was born in Bologna of all places, just a 20-minute drive from Ferrari’s headquarters in Maranello.”

• All Formula 1 World Champions

• 2026: Kimi Antonelli (I), Mercedes

• 2025: Lando Norris (GB), McLaren-Mercedes

• 2024: Max Verstappen (NL), Red Bull Racing-Honda

• 2023: Max Verstappen (NL), Red Bull Racing-Honda

• 2022: Max Verstappen (NL), Red Bull Racing-Honda

• 2021: Max Verstappen (NL), Red Bull Racing-Honda

• 2020: Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes

• 2019: Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes

• 2018: Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes

• 2017: Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes

• 2016: Nico Rosberg (Germany), Mercedes

• 2015: Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes

• 2014: Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes

• 2013: Sebastian Vettel (Germany), Red Bull Racing-Renault

• 2012: Sebastian Vettel (Germany), Red Bull Racing-Renault

• 2011: Sebastian Vettel (Germany), Red Bull Racing-Renault

• 2010: Sebastian Vettel (Germany), Red Bull Racing-Renault

• 2009: Jenson Button (GB), BrawnGP-Mercedes

• 2008: Lewis Hamilton (GB), McLaren-Mercedes

• 2007: Kimi Räikkönen (FIN), Ferrari

• 2006: Fernando Alonso (E), Renault

• 2005: Fernando Alonso (E), Renault

• 2004: Michael Schumacher (GER), Ferrari

• 2003: Michael Schumacher (Germany), Ferrari

• 2002: Michael Schumacher (GER), Ferrari

• 2001: Michael Schumacher (Germany), Ferrari

• 2000: Michael Schumacher (D), Ferrari

• 1999: Mika Häkkinen (FIN), McLaren-Mercedes

• 1998: Mika Häkkinen (FIN), McLaren-Mercedes

• 1997: Jacques Villeneuve (CAN), Williams-Renault

• 1996: Damon Hill (GB), Williams-Renault

• 1995: Michael Schumacher (GER), Benetton-Renault

• 1994: Michael Schumacher (GER), Benetton-Ford

• 1993: Alain Prost (F), Williams-Renault

• 1992: Nigel Mansell (GB), Williams-Renault

• 1991: Ayrton Senna (BR), McLaren-Honda

• 1990: Ayrton Senna (BR), McLaren-Honda

• 1989: Alain Prost (F), McLaren-Honda

• 1988: Ayrton Senna (BR), McLaren-Honda

• 1987: Nelson Piquet (BR), Williams-Honda

• 1986: Alain Prost (F), McLaren-TAG

• 1985: Alain Prost (F), McLaren-TAG

• 1984: Niki Lauda (A), McLaren-TAG

• 1983: Nelson Piquet (BR), Brabham-BMW

• 1982: Keke Rosberg (FIN), Williams-Ford

• 1981: Nelson Piquet (BR), Brabham-Ford

• 1980: Alan Jones (AUS), Williams-Ford

• 1979: Jody Scheckter (ZA), Ferrari

• 1978: Mario Andretti (USA), Lotus-Ford

• 1977: Niki Lauda (A), Ferrari

• 1976: James Hunt (GB), McLaren-Ford

• 1975: Niki Lauda (A), Ferrari

• 1974: Emerson Fittipaldi (BR), McLaren-Ford

• 1973: Jackie Stewart (GB), Tyrrell-Ford

• 1972: Emerson Fittipaldi (BR), Lotus-Ford

• 1971: Jackie Stewart (GB), Tyrrell-Ford

• 1970: Jochen Rindt (A), Lotus-Ford

• 1969: Jackie Stewart (GB), Matra-Ford

• 1968: Graham Hill (GB), Lotus-Ford

• 1967: Denny Hulme (NZ), Brabham-Repco

• 1966: Jack Brabham (AUS), Brabham-Repco

• 1965: Jim Clark (GB), Lotus-Climax

• 1964: John Surtees (GB), Ferrari

• 1963: Jim Clark (GB), Lotus-Climax

• 1962: Graham Hill (GB), BRM

• 1961: Phil Hill (USA), Ferrari

• 1960: Jack Brabham (AUS), Cooper-Climax

• 1959: Jack Brabham (AUS), Cooper-Climax

• 1958: Mike Hawthorn (GB), Ferrari

• 1957: Juan Manuel Fangio (AR), Maserati

• 1956: Juan Manuel Fangio (AR), Ferrari

• 1955: Juan Manuel Fangio (AR), Mercedes

• 1954: Juan Manuel Fangio (AR), Maserati and Mercedes

• 1953: Alberto Ascari (I), Ferrari

• 1952: Alberto Ascari (I), Ferrari

• 1951: Juan Manuel Fangio (RA), Alfa Romeo

• 1950: Giuseppe Farina (I), Alfa Romeo