Kimi Antonelli clinched the Formula 1 world championship Sunday, becoming the youngest driver in the sport’s history to win the title at just 20.
The Italian prodigy secured the title at the Mexican Grand Prix with four races remaining on the 2026 calendar, capping a sensational season in just his second year in F1.
He finished third and scored 15 points, enough to vanquish his remaining rivals from mathematical contention for the most coveted trophy in motor racing.
“We did it! Thank you so much,” an emotional Antonelli said on the team radio after taking the checkered flag.
“I’m very grateful for this moment,” he said after jumping out of the car. “It’s one that will live forever. I’m speechless. I’m trying to process what has just happened. … Looking forward to some more battles in the future.”
Antonelli broke the record set by Sebastian Vettel, who was 23 when he won the championship in a title-deciding thriller in 2010. Antonelli also became Italy’s first F1 world champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953, vaulting him to superstardom at home.
Antonelli has won nine out of 19 races so far this season, consistently outperforming his veteran Mercedes teammate and chief rival, George Russell, who began the year as the betting favorite to win the 2026 championship.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the race. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton started on pole position and finished second. Russell qualified second but finished sixth on Sunday after a 10-second time penalty for a crash ruined his race. Russell and Hamilton both needed to win — and have Antonelli finish lower down the order — to have any chance of staying in the title fight.
It was a poetic moment for Antonelli, sharing a podium with Hamilton and Verstappen, two legends of the sport who have won seven and four world championships, respectively.
At the opening race of the season in Australia, Russell seemed to solidify his front-running status with a victory, as Mercedes fulfilled expectations by building the fastest car under the new regulations that began this year. But from there, it has all been downhill for the 28-year-old British driver, as Antonelli won the next five races to establish himself as the clear favorite.
“Kimi surprised us all with his maturity. Obviously we knew he had speed and all this talent. I think not many people expected that he was, this year, so quick and beating a very strong teammate like George,” former Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner told NBC News. “I didn’t expect it. He’s a 20-year-old with the mind of a 30-year-old experienced F1 driver. That made him what he is.”
Antonelli took the lead of the championship in the third race of the 2026 season, and he never relinquished it. A critical juncture came when Antonelli won in Canada and Monaco while Russell failed to score points in either race because of a mechanical failure and pit-timing error by F1. Antonelli’s lead ballooned to 68 points after the sixth race.
Antonelli had some bad luck of his own in subsequent races, and Russell made up ground. But it wasn’t enough. And as Russell has acknowledged, Antonelli has outperformed him throughout the season, with more pole positions and race wins as well as superior speed when both drivers had an equal opportunity.
Another former F1 team boss, Otmar Szafnauer, said Antonelli’s championship-winning season can be attributed to three things: “His mental preparedness, raw talent and great attitude.”
“He is able to mentally compartmentalize to his advantage,” Szafnauer told NBC News, by staying consistent under pressure.
The Italian all but guaranteed his title last Sunday with a victory in Austin, Texas, prompting even his rivals to concede defeat.
“The truth is he’s been at a higher level than me this year,” Russell told reporters Thursday.
“This season, we have the best car, and I’m not able to achieve these results. So, yeah, it’s quite strange and certainly has us scratching our heads a little bit,” he said.
After four years in a Mercedes that was capable only of occasional race wins, Russell finally got his title-winning car. But it was Antonelli who made the most of it. The new generation of F1 cars — with less downforce and more reliance on electrical power — has forced competitors to rethink their driving styles.
The new cars reward Antonelli’s aggressive style of braking late and attacking corners with sharp turns. He’s also more comfortable than others driving at the limit with a loose-handling car that tends to slide underneath him.
By contrast, the 2026 cars punish Russell’s preference for smoother inputs and gaining lap time by getting on the throttle early on corner exits. That approach, which served him well in the previous generation of cars, eats up tire life and battery power in the newer machines. Russell has said adjusting his approach feels “like a golfer changing his swing.”
The defining moment of the rivalry came at the Italian Grand Prix, when Antonelli started 19th and hunted down Russell to win the race. It was a statement victory that underscored his advantage over his teammate.
Last Sunday in Austin, Antonelli told NBC News he still hadn’t reached his full potential and discussed areas where he could improve, including race starts and his tendency to exceed “track limits” and incur penalties or warnings.
“Track limits has been the bigger thing for me,” he said. “But definitely, these kinds of situations, and then also in some of the qualifying sessions, I just didn’t go in with the right mindset. So, yeah, just making sure I improve those.”
The reversal of the Mercedes driver hierarchy has been the shock of the season. Antonelli had an up-and-down rookie season last year, showing flashes of brilliance and stretches of struggle. He was comprehensively outperformed in 2025 by Russell, who was widely seen as a champion-in-waiting, ready to strike when he had a car strong enough to win regularly.
Antonelli’s triumph leaves several contenders battling for second place in the standings, with Russell, Hamilton, Verstappen and Charles Leclerc all in close contention.
Russell said finishing second in 2026 matters less to him than setting himself up to compete for a title next year.
“For every driver on the grid, there’s only one position that matters, and it’s P1,” he told reporters. “Of course, I want to finish as high as possible. … What’s more important to me is to finish the season with positive momentum rather than necessarily that final order.”
