On 1 November 2026, third place in the Mexico City Grand Prix made Kimi Antonelli the Formula 1 world champion. He was 20 years and 68 days old, the youngest champion in the history of the sport, and the first Italian to win the title since Alberto Ascari in 1953. He got there in his second season of Formula 1, after a junior career in which he won almost everything he entered. This is his story, from the karting tracks of Emilia-Romagna to the title in Mexico.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was born in Bologna on 25 August 2006 and grew up in nearby Casalecchio di Reno. Motor racing was already the family business: his father, Marco Antonelli, raced sportscars, won the Italian GT Championship in 2018 and runs AKM Motorsport, a team based in San Marino that has entered the Italian F4 Championship since 2022. Kimi started driving karts at the age of five, at the Galliano Park circuit in Forlì.

Karting: a European champion before 15

His first notable win came in 2015, in the Trofeo Italia 60cc class. In 2018 he won the WSK Champions Cup, the South Garda Winter Cup and the ROK Cup International Final in the junior classes, and Mercedes noticed. The team announced in April 2019 that the 12-year-old had joined its Junior Team. That season, his first in OK-Junior, he won six international titles and his first Italian championship, and finished second in the European Championship.

In 2020 he moved up to the senior OK class and won the WSK Euro Series, the Italian championship and the FIA Karting European Championship, becoming the youngest senior European champion in history. He was also named the FIA’s karting rookie of the year. In 2021 he defended his European title, with five wins from eight rounds, before leaving karts for single-seaters.

Four single-seater titles in two years

Antonelli made his car racing debut in the Italian F4 Championship with Prema at the Red Bull Ring in 2021, three weeks after his 15th birthday. He entered three of the seven rounds and won four races in the rookie classification. In 2022 he won the Italian F4 title with a then-record 13 victories and the German ADAC F4 title with a race to spare, and won gold for Italy in the F4 Cup of the FIA Motorsport Games at Le Castellet while racing with a broken left wrist. Across his F4 career he took 26 wins and 24 poles from 57 starts.

In 2023 he won the Formula Regional Middle East Championship with Mumbai Falcons, then the Formula Regional European Championship with Prema: five wins, 11 podiums and four poles, and a 39-point margin over Martinius Stenshorne.

Formula 2, then Hamilton’s seat

Mercedes skipped Formula 3 and moved him straight to Formula 2 for 2024, with Prema, alongside Oliver Bearman. It was his hardest season: he won the sprint race at Silverstone and the feature race in Budapest, and finished sixth in the championship with 113 points, 38 ahead of Bearman.

His Formula 1 career started in a hurry. At Monza in August 2024, in his first Grand Prix practice session, he drove George Russell’s Mercedes W15 and spun into the barrier at the Parabolica after setting the fastest lap. Mercedes still confirmed him the following day as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement for 2025, at 18, with number 12 on his car.

2025: the record rookie

Antonelli passed his driving test six weeks before his first Grand Prix and finished his school exams online during the first half of the season. At the 2025 Australian Grand Prix he started 16th and finished fourth, the second-youngest points scorer in Formula 1 history. He took the sprint pole in Miami, his first podium with third in Canada, third in Las Vegas and second in São Paulo. He ended the year seventh with 150 points, the highest score ever for a Formula 1 rookie.

2026: nine wins and a title

Mercedes started the new-rules era of 2026 as the team to beat, and Antonelli made the most of it. After second place behind Russell in Australia, he became the youngest pole-sitter in Formula 1 history in China, at 19 years and 202 days, and turned that pole into his first win. A second win in Japan made him the youngest championship leader ever. He then won in Miami, Canada and Monaco, where he scored a grand chelem: pole, win, fastest lap and every lap in the lead. No driver had won the first five races after his maiden victory.

The summer was harder. An electrical failure four laps from the end in Barcelona ended the run, and at Silverstone, after winning the sprint, a broken wheel shield and a track-limits penalty dropped him from pole to 15th. He came back with a win from pole at Spa, then won at Monza from 19th on the grid after an engine penalty, the first Italian to win the Italian Grand Prix in 60 years. He won again at the Madring in Madrid, recovered from 16th to fifth in Baku, and won from pole in Austin, which left him 123 points ahead of Russell before Mexico City.

Champion in Mexico City

Antonelli needed ninth place in Mexico City. He finished third behind Max Verstappen and Hamilton, and with 380 points, 119 more than Verstappen and only 100 left to win, the title was his with four rounds to go. He beat the record Sebastian Vettel set in 2010 as the youngest champion, became the first champion born in the 2000s, and gave Mercedes their first drivers’ title since Hamilton in 2020. His career totals after Mexico: 43 Grands Prix, 9 wins, 7 poles, 19 podiums and 530 points. Mercedes had already confirmed him alongside Russell for 2027.

Sources

Family, karting, junior series and career statistics: Wikipedia, Andrea Kimi Antonelli. 2026 races: our race reports from China, Japan, Miami, Belgium, Italy, Madrid and Austin, and on the Barcelona and Silverstone setbacks. Title and records: Formula 1 race report, Mexico City.