Antonelli Becomes Youngest Formula One World Champion
Seven Lights
Kimi Antonelli became the youngest driver to win the Formula One world championship on Sunday, finishing third at the Mexico City Grand Prix to take the title with four races remaining.
Driving for Mercedes, Antonelli clinched the championship aged 20 years and 68 days, breaking Sebastian Vettel’s record by three years and 66 days. He is the first Italian champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953. Over the team radio he said: “Thank you so much. We did it. We did it.”
The race itself was won by Max Verstappen, with Lewis Hamilton second. A red flag, brought on after Arvid Lindblad crashed his Racing Bulls following a collision with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, shortened the event to a 25-lap sprint. When it restarted with seven laps left, Antonelli sat at the back of a three-car train with Verstappen and Hamilton; the three crossed the line nose to tail, less than two seconds covering them. Tension inside Ferrari, second in the constructors’ standings, was laid bare as Hamilton and Charles Leclerc traded positions. Verstappen and Hamilton lifted Antonelli on the podium.
Antonelli won five of the first six races of the season, outrunning his teammate George Russell, the pre-season favourite, and took nine wins in all. He failed to score points only twice, both times through mechanical failure, and sealed a remarkable victory from 19th on the grid at his home race at Monza. Russell and Hamilton, his nearest rivals, needed to win in Mexico to keep the title alive; Antonelli’s third place would have clinched it even had they done so.
The title is Mercedes’ first drivers’ championship since Hamilton won in 2020 and the team’s tenth. In a twist of fate noted by rivals, Antonelli was born on the day Vettel made his Formula One debut.
The constructors’ title remains open, with McLaren holding a 22-point lead over Ferrari with four rounds left. The season concludes in December with races in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.