Before the 2026 season had begun there was something of a consensus within Formula One. Mercedes appeared to have the fastest car and George Russell was favourite for the title. Beside him in what was indeed a dominant Mercedes, his teenage teammate, Kimi Antonelli, was the prodigious talent who was expected to require honing after a tricky rookie season.
Said consensus lasted one race, by the sixth it had been turned on its head and Antonelli was squarely on his way to being champion. Few had doubted that the then 19-year-old Italian would prove to be strong in a car that for the first two-thirds of the season was the class of the field but for Antonelli to come out of the blocks with such verve, aggressive skill and also the judgment and at times maturity of a veteran was revelatory. As the youngest F1 world champion and Italy’s first since Alberto Ascari in 1953, Antonelli made history this year but it was the way he did it which truly caught the eye.
As the sport’s youngest world champion at 20 years old crossed the line in tears, wracked with emotion at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, quite what it meant to him was clear. As it was for his mother, father and sister, the family with whom he is so close and who have played a key part in his success. They embraced and shed their own tears too.
It might have been an inevitability for some time now but when he climbed from his car to the roaring approval of the fans in the hugely atmospheric stadium section it was understandable that the Italian, only just out of his teens, could barely take it in. This moment is one that will live for ever. I am just trying to process this moment.” In his rookie season Antonelli had struggled with the ground-effect cars as he came to terms with F1 and endured a run of poor performances mid-season.
Questions were asked about whether he had been promoted too soon. They were answered emphatically this year but not quite from the off. At the season opener in Australia he crashed out in final practice with an air of the over-eager charger that was costly and familiar from 2025.
The repairs to his car meant he almost missed qualifying and Russell went on to win. The bookies it seemed had called it right. What followed, for all that it was so early in the season, was nonetheless gamechanging.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
