F1 CEO hails Kimi Antonelli’s historic title victory.
Kimi Antonelli is the 2026 Formula 1 world champion. The Mercedes driver sealed the drivers’ title at the Mexico City Grand Prix, becoming the youngest champion in the sport’s history at just 20 years old. Formula 1 marked the moment by calling it an incredible new chapter in the sport’s history, written by Antonelli, and shared congratulations from president and CEO Stefano Domenicali.
Domenicali Congratulates Antonelli on an Incredible New Chapter
Formula 1’s official message described the result as an incredible new chapter in the sport’s history, written by the Italian driver. It added that Stefano Domenicali, the sport’s President and CEO, was sharing his congratulations. The message was posted in the hours after Antonelli crossed the line in Mexico City.
Domenicali, himself Italian, joined the tributes as Antonelli ended a 73-year wait for a third Italian world champion. The result completes a rapid journey for a driver who only arrived on the Formula 1 grid in 2025.
How Antonelli Clinched the 2026 F1 World Championship in Mexico City
The title came a week after Antonelli dominated the United States Grand Prix in Austin for his ninth victory of the season. Hamilton and Russell finished fourth and eighth there, which delayed the celebrations by one more race and left Antonelli needing only a ninth-place finish in Mexico City.
It was the 26th edition of the Mexico City Grand Prix, and Antonelli arrived at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez for the 71-lap race with that target. It held regardless of where his rivals Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate George Russell finished. Hamilton started on pole position, with Antonelli fourth on the grid. Antonelli spent much of the afternoon among the leaders, and by lap 38 he held a nine-second lead over Lando Norris, with the top five covered by nearly 15 seconds.
Max Verstappen then closed in, and after a restart with eight laps remaining, the Red Bull driver held on to win by 0.7 seconds ahead of Hamilton. Antonelli completed the podium, about four seconds behind the winner. It was more than enough to make the championship mathematically his, with four races still left on the calendar.
Youngest World Champion in Formula 1 History
Antonelli was 20 years and 68 days old when the title was confirmed. That broke the record previously held by Sebastian Vettel, who was 23 when he won his first championship in 2010. Antonelli also becomes the 36th different driver to win the Formula 1 world championship.
His triumph means Formula 1 has crowned a first-time world champion in consecutive seasons, following Lando Norris of McLaren in 2025. It all came in only his second year in the sport. A week earlier in Texas, he had been too young to be handed champagne on the podium under local drinking laws.
The Mexico City podium brought together three drivers with very different stories. Antonelli stood alongside Verstappen, a four-time world champion, and Hamilton, a seven-time champion and the driver whose Mercedes seat Antonelli took over.
From Replacing Hamilton to Winning the Title in Two Seasons
Antonelli’s rise has been rapid. Mercedes promoted him to replace Hamilton for the 2025 season, when he was just 18, handing a teenager one of the most scrutinised seats on the grid. Hamilton moved to Ferrari, and Antonelli took on the task of proving himself in a new era for the team. He made an early mark in 2025 by becoming the youngest pole-winner of any Formula 1 event, at the Miami sprint.
The 2026 season, played out under the sport’s new regulations, was the one in which he fulfilled that promise. He took his first Grand Prix pole position in China, becoming the youngest pole-sitter in Formula 1 history, and converted it into his maiden victory on March 15 at the age of 19. At the time, only Verstappen had won a race at a younger age. Team-mate George Russell finished second to complete a Mercedes one-two, while Hamilton took third for Ferrari, his first podium with the Italian team.
He followed that with a second consecutive win in Japan, making him the first Italian driver to win back-to-back Grands Prix in 74 years. His victories also included the Miami Grand Prix. Later in the year he won at Monza after starting from 19th on the grid, becoming the first Italian to win the Italian Grand Prix since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966. In Austin, he controlled the United States Grand Prix from pole position, his ninth win of the year, a performance that took him to the brink of the title.
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What Antonelli’s Championship Means for Italy and Formula 1
The title carries enormous significance in Italy. Antonelli is the country’s first Formula 1 world champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953, ending a 73-year wait for a third Italian champion. Domenicali’s congratulations reflected that milestone for a nation that had not seen one of its own win the drivers’ crown in 73 years.
For Mercedes, the championship is the result of a bet on youth that began when the team chose a teenager to follow a seven-time world champion. For Formula 1, it delivers a champion who is younger than any before him, as the sport moves through its new technical era.
Mexico City was the 19th round of a 23-race season, so Antonelli can now race as the reigning world champion for the remaining four events. Whatever happens in the closing rounds, his place in the record books is secure. The Italian has not only won the title but done so younger than anyone before him.