Kimi Antonelli is the new Formula 1 world champion. The 20-year-old Mercedes driver finished third at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday, 1 November 2026, and that result was enough to seal the title with races still to come, making him the youngest champion in the sport’s history.
Antonelli only needed a ninth-place finish or better to clinch the crown outright, and he delivered under pressure. Starting fourth on the grid at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, and racing while unwell and exhausted, he held his nerve through a disrupted afternoon to cross the line behind race winner Max Verstappen and second-placed Lewis Hamilton.
When the chequered flag fell, the two men who shared the podium with him lifted the new champion into the air. Between them, Verstappen and Hamilton own 12 world titles. On Sunday, the newest name joined that list.
FAKTA: Kimi Antonelli, Formula 1 world champion
- Champion: Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, aged 20 years and 68 days
- Title sealed: Third place, Mexico City Grand Prix, 1 November 2026
- Race winner: Max Verstappen, his sixth victory in Mexico; Lewis Hamilton second
- Record: Youngest Formula 1 world champion ever, beating Sebastian Vettel, who was 23 in 2010
- Season: Nine wins in 2026, including five in a row early in the year
- Italian first: First Italian world champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953
- Next races: Brazil and Las Vegas, with the status of the final two scheduled rounds still uncertain
A third place that made history for Kimi Antonelli
There was nothing routine about the race that decided the championship. The Mexico City Grand Prix was stopped on lap 46 after Valtteri Bottas crashed into the wall at the first corner, and at the restart Verstappen led from Charles Leclerc, Hamilton, Antonelli, Lando Norris and George Russell. Verstappen never looked back, but Antonelli did not need to win. Third place was plenty.
On the team radio, his voice cracked as he told his team: “We did it, we did it.” It was the end of a season in which he won nine races, including five in a row early in the campaign, and built an unassailable lead over his Mercedes team-mate Russell. He is only the fourth driver in Formula 1 history to win the title in his second season, after Hamilton, Jacques Villeneuve and Juan Manuel Fangio.
A Mercedes Formula 1 car at speed in Mexico City, where Antonelli’s third place sealed the 2026 world championship.
From Bologna schoolboy to the top of Formula 1
Antonelli was born in Bologna on 25 August 2006, the son of a sports car racing father who took him to the track as a young boy. Mercedes spotted his talent in karting and signed him to its junior programme while he was still a schoolboy, and the team fast-tracked him into one of the most coveted seats in the sport when Hamilton left for Ferrari.
He has repaid that faith in record time. Along the way he has set marks as the youngest driver to lead the championship, to start a race from pole position and to win the Monaco Grand Prix. Vettel, whose youngest-champion record he has now beaten by three years, was among those to congratulate him.
Back in Italy, the celebrations were immediate. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni praised the new champion on social media, and several hundred fans watched a late-night screening of the race at the museum at Imola, the home track of Ferrari, putting club loyalties aside to cheer an Italian champion for the first time in 73 years.
What happens next
Antonelli’s title also leaves Mercedes on the brink of another constructors’ championship, a further reward for a season of dominance. The drivers now head to Brazil and then to Las Vegas, with the status of the final two scheduled rounds still uncertain.
For the champion himself, the remaining races are a chance to enjoy a crown nobody can take away. At 20 years and 68 days old, he has time on his side that no champion before him has ever had. For more international sports coverage, visit Watan News.
