Kimi Andrea Antonelli finished third in Mexico City on Sunday and walked away with the biggest prize in motorsport. At 20, the Mercedes driver is Formula 1’s youngest world champion.
Max Verstappen won the race. Almost nobody was looking at him.
The math going in was simple. Barring disaster for Antonelli or the Mercedes W26, the title was his. No disaster came, and the Italian was hoisted into the air on the podium by Verstappen and second-placed Lewis Hamilton.
Three drivers, twelve world championships between them. One of them had only held his for a matter of minutes.
The record Antonelli broke had stood since 2010, when Sebastian Vettel took the title at 23 years and 134 days. Hamilton sits next on that list, crowned in 2008 at 23 years and 300 days.
Fernando Alonso follows, champion in 2005 at 24 years and 57 days. Verstappen won his first in 2021 at 24 years and 73 days.
Antonelli didn’t just shave time off that list. He cleared it by years, and he did it in his second season.
The number that should sting inside Mercedes isn’t his age. It’s nine.
That’s how many races Antonelli has won. George Russell, his teammate, has eight, and Russell has been on the grid since 2019. The kid hired to replace Hamilton has now out-won and out-championed the driver who was supposed to inherit the team.
Verstappen, never one to hand out praise for its own sake, put his finger on exactly that. “I think to achieve this in your second year in F1 is always very impressive,” he said. “Because, of course, at his age as well, to be so solid, not make big mistakes, and of course, also beat your experienced team mate.”
He called Antonelli “the deserved champion this year.” Coming from a four-time title holder who had just won the race, that carries weight.
Hamilton, the man whose Mercedes seat Antonelli took, was warmer still. “It was beautiful to be up there with these two and to be up there with Kimi for his first World Championship,” he said. He called it “one of the most special moments that I remember having here.”
The admiration goes all the way to the top. FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem told The Drive in Austin that Antonelli is a generational talent who grinds every day, never complains, and gets on with the job no matter what’s happening around him.
Ben Sulayem also admitted he did a double take when Antonelli’s Super License application crossed his desk. On paper, it looked like a stretch. The results settled the argument.
The Autódromo Hermanos RodrÃguez threw a party regardless. The stadium section was packed with fans cheering three champions and local hero Checo Pérez, who finished his home race in 11th.
What happens next is murkier than the championship ever was.
With uncertainty in the Middle East, the calendar could shrink to just two races: Brazil and Las Vegas. MotoGP salvaged Qatar at the last minute, so a reprieve isn’t impossible.
Paddock chatter in Austin and Mexico was split. Some contacts said they were heading to the Middle East after Vegas, while others said the opposite.
So the youngest champion in Formula 1 history doesn’t yet know how many more times he’ll race this year with the title in hand. Two weekends, maybe more.
Brazil is next.
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