‘A different kid’: Antonelli poised to secure first F1 title after standout season
Kimi Antonelli may clinch his first Formula One drivers' title at this Sunday's US Grand Prix in Austin, with the championship described as all but assured. The 20-year-old Italian has eight wins this season and stands within touching distance of becoming F1’s youngest world champion.
Antonelli is in only his second season in the sport after making his debut for the team in 2025 following a whirlwind three years moving from F4, to Formula Regional and then F2. He joined Mercedes' junior driver programme aged 12 and was handed a race seat that involved stepping into the shoes of the departing seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. The rapid progression through the junior categories and his current run of victories have underpinned Mercedes' faith in him.
Those who knew him as a child describe the same enthusiasm that now fuels his racing. As a three-year-old he would sit on his father Marco’s knee to try a racing simulator while Marco controlled the pedals and his son steered; pictures from his childhood in Bologna show him smiling whenever he had a wheel in his hands. Marco runs a racing team in San Marino and has accompanied his son throughout his career.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff highlighted the contrast between Antonelli’s driving and the stereotype of a winning F1 personality, saying: “In the past, there was the opinion in F1 that in order to be winning, you need to be an asshole, you need to be ruthless and opportunistic,” he observed this season as Antonelli made a stunning start with five wins on the trot and the entire world was paying attention to the kid who, for many, had come from nowhere. “I don’t think that Kimi is that. It’s just down to driving faster than the others, and being a nice person also.”
Gwen Lagrue, the talent scout who led Mercedes’ junior driver programme, recalled his immediate impact: “With Kimi, I saw almost from day one that I was dealing with a different kid,” Lagrue said. “First, what impressed me, well, amazed me, was his natural presence. He was already having such an impact on everyone in the paddock, you noticed this kid has something different than the others. Everyone liked Kimi, everyone was hugging him. He was like the Kimi you see today when he was 11. He was so passionate about what he was doing, about racing, about F1, everything.”
Family and education have been emphasized alongside his racing. He completed his maturità school exams just after coming third — his first podium — at the Canadian GP last year, and Antonelli described the closeness of his family: “My dad is always going to give me his point of view, he’s going to give me advice and then if I decide to listen, good, but if I don’t decide to listen, it’s OK as well,” he said. Wolff pointed to the rarity of that background when he asked: “Which driver has done the A-levels or the baccalaureate? Name me one that has finished school. No one.”
Drivers and coaches note a blend of raw aggression in race trim and maturity off the track. Lagrue said: “We had to teach him instead of always being at 110%, just be at 100%.” That aggression has produced memorable results, including an extraordinary victory from 19th on the grid at the Italian GP, and occasional moments of frustration — after a win in Belgium he risked a penalty for exceeding track limits, prompting his father to joke: “He said: ‘Congrats, but …’ Always a but … ‘If I see you doing another track limit for nothing, I’m gonna stretch your neck like a chicken.’”
Before his Italian GP victory, Antonelli said he wanted to win the championship but that it was important for him to do so by being himself. The latter he can consider a job most admirably well done. Whether the Italian seals his place as F1’s youngest world champion at this Sunday’s US Grand Prix in Austin or the next round in Mexico or even beyond that is moot — that he will do so is all but assured. The former is only a matter of time.