Kimi Antonelli Becomes Formula 1’s Youngest World Champion
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli becomes Formula 1’s youngest driver to win a World Driver’s Championship and he becomes the first Italian to do so since Alberto Ascari in 1953.
The 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix was where Kimi Antonelli broke Formula 1 history to become the youngest world champion ever at just 20 years and 3 months old. Here is how he did it!
Kimi Antonelli had grown up around racing as his father, Marco Antonelli who was a racing driver in the GT series, so he started his career in karting in 2014. In 2019, he won the WSK Euro Series and Super Master Series in the OK junior category and he finished runner-up in the FIA European Karting Championship. 2019 marked one of the biggest moments in his career as he was signed as a Mercedes junior driver as he joined the development programme just aged 12. The following year, he competed in the same series and he became champion in both standings. However, in 2021 he only competed in the European Karting Championship and he successfully defended his title.
2021 was when he made his debut in single seater racing series as he joined PREMA Racing in Italian F4 where he earned 3 podiums where he later won the championship in 2022 along with the ADAC Formula 4 Championship. With his excellent performance in the F4 series, he transitioned to Formula Regional in 2023 where he raced in both the Middle East Championship and the European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) carrying on his exceptional performances and earning the championship titles.
Then something unusual happened as he skipped Formula 3 and went straight to Formula 2 in 2024 still racing with the PREMA Racing constructor. In his rookie season, he won the Silverstone sprint race and then won the Hungarian feature race the next round. His results had set him up for an FP1 test session at the Italian Grand Prix for Mercedes, stepping into his now teammate George Russell’s car. Later that year, it was announced that he would be driving for the silver arrows in the following season making his official debut in the sport.
2025 was when Kimi Antonelli made his Formula 1 debut at just 18 years old taking over from the seven time world champion, Lewis Hamilton. In his first grand prix he managed a P4, and secured his first podium at the Canadian Grand Prix with his best result a P2 in Brazil.
2026 was his second season in Formula 1 and it looked promising for the young Italian. In the pre-season testing, Mercedes were the quickest car to come out of the weekend and fans had expected one of their drivers to take the championship this year. Antonelli had taken his first win in Formula 1 at the Chinese Grand Prix and then later took the lead of the championship at the Japanese Grand Prix. Throughout the season so far, Antonelli has had 9 Grand Prix victories, 15 podiums, 7 pole positions, over 350 championship points and leading the championship by over 100 points. Coming into the Mexico City Grand Prix, it was pretty certain that Kimi was going to win the championship as he needed to finish anywhere from P1 to P9. But if his teammate had won the grand prix and Kimi had finished P10 or lower, the championship would have continued to Brazil. At the end of the race, Kimi had finished P3 and won his first ever championship in Formula 1. With this championship, he now beats Sebastian Vettel’s record of being the youngest Formula 1 champion at just 20 years old.
Article Written By Sophie W
