The seven moments that defined Antonelli's F1 title win in 2026

Kimi Antonelli has clinched his first Formula 1 world title after finishing third at the Mexico Grand Prix, making him the youngest-ever F1 champion and Mercedes' first drivers' title winner since Lewis Hamilton in 2020.

The 20-year-old has been a revelation this season, delivering on the potential in which Mercedes placed its faith for the 2025 season. Although Antonelli's talent and a strong Mercedes chassis have ultimately combined to secure the title, there have been several key turning points that defined his championship-winning season.

Let's take a moment to reflect on a bumper year with the seven most important moments in Antonelli's 2026 season.

A maiden F1 win in China

Antonelli took his maiden F1 win in the second round of the season - and never looked back

Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images

After George Russell took victory in the Melbourne season opener, you could be forgiven for thinking “well, there goes the championship”. As a potential championship contender, Antonelli was perhaps not really given the time of day; he was too raw, they said (and, to be fair, we probably said this too), and although his form had picked up at the end of 2025, it was thought that Russell would be able to lean on his greater experience to ‘build’ the stronger championship assault.

But, in truth, China changed that perception. Initially, it looked set to be another race where Russell could press Mercedes’ early advantage into another win, demonstrated by his sprint victory after outlasting Hamilton in a thrilling yo-yo battle for the lead, but it all went wrong in qualifying.

A front wing breakage in Q2, followed by a power unit issue in Q3, put Russell on the back foot. He was playing catch-up, and thus Antonelli was largely unchallenged on his path to a maiden pole position. The only sticking point was staying there, as Ferrari's package had demonstrated its penchant for lightning-fast starts as Mercedes tended to get bogged down - as seen in Melbourne and the Shanghai sprint.

Although Antonelli lost a place to Hamilton off the line, his start was not nearly as troubled on this occasion and he ceded only the one place; keeping him clear of Charles Leclerc. On the second tour, Antonelli picked off Hamilton at Turn 14 to reclaim control of the lead. From here, he had an almost free run to the win, helped by the Ferraris working together to fight against Russell - who had dropped behind both scarlet cars off the line. A minor wobble at the same Turn 14 put hearts in mouths as Antonelli slipped into the run-off, but he’d very quickly shaken that off to clinch his first grand prix win.

Victory in Canada, as Russell retires

Russell and Antonelli tussled for both the sprint and grand prix win in Canada, but the Briton's power unit failure prematurely ended that fight

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

Off the back of breaking his victory duck, Antonelli reeled off subsequent wins either side of the impromptu April break - as the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were cancelled due to the fallout of the US-Israel conflict with Iran. A win at Suzuka preceded the break, and Antonelli then shook off a resurgent Lando Norris in Miami to wrap up his third successive victory.

Mercedes’ Montreal updates pushed the team a little further ahead for Canada, essentially making the fight for victory a two-way duel. The sprint almost boiled over as Antonelli was drawn into a wheel-to-wheel fight with Russell, who ran his team-mate out of road at the first corner and allowed Norris to split the two Mercedes cars. Were a battle to emerge in the grand prix, the two drivers were instructed to keep it clean.

This was exactly what had unfolded. Russell took pole, although lost places to both Antonelli and Norris as the McLarens gambled on intermediate tyres for the start - a benefit that lasted all of one lap before it was clear that the Woking team had gone all-in for no reward. This reinstated the Mercedes 1-2, opening the way for Antonelli and Russell to duke it out over the lead of the race.

With the overtake mode proving powerful with the back-straight slipstream, the two continued to swap positions; as this settled down into the middle phase of the race, Russell had reclaimed the lead and was aiming to build a break over his team-mate.

But this came to a standstill on the 30th lap. Russell initially skipped across the grass at Turn 8, and then pulled up on the exit of the chicane - and visibly infuriated by his Mercedes power unit having given up the ghost. A battery issue proved terminal, and Russell faced a colossal dent to his title chances as Antonelli put another 25 points on him without much resistance.

Demonstrating his class with a win in Monaco

Antonelli celebrates a flawless Monaco GP win

Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images

This might not be quite as much of a defining moment in the championship as some of the others on this list, but it was an important step in Antonelli’s march to the title nonetheless. While the other races might have been turning points, or instances where Antonelli accepted a hefty points swing in his favour, this was simply a demonstration of his consummate class as a driver.

Mercedes looked to be in a spot of bother during Friday practice, as Ferrari had moved forward with updates and appeared to have a car much more suited to the demands of Monaco's array of bumps, kerbs, and tight corners. But Ferrari then struggled to turn it on in qualifying; Red Bull was stronger in the first and third sectors, Ferrari only holding its own in the middle sector.

Mercedes was precisely faster than neither in the individual sectors, but Antonelli nonetheless strung together a complete lap to perch up on pole - a smidgen ahead of Max Verstappen, and a whopping four-tenths clear of Russell.

Verstappen’s car then decided it didn’t want to race and barely got out of the starting blocks. This put Hamilton on Antonelli’s six, but the Mercedes driver’s lead eventually began to snowball thanks to a display of searing and - crucially - consistent pace. Every lap was inch-perfect - but Antonelli’s progress was wiped out towards the end following a safety car and a red flag as the circuit began to break up at Antony Noghes corner.

With Hamilton alongside at the standing restart, Antonelli might have feared the Ferrari’s prowess off the line - but Hamilton got too much wheelspin, and thus the Bologna-born driver was free to lead the field home to the chequered flag.

Ending a barren spell at Spa-Francorchamps

A three-race winless run was halted in Belgium, coupled with another Russell DNF

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

After Monaco, Antonelli had to roll with the punches as a difficult three-race spell contrived to eat away at his title lead. Mercedes fell prey to Ferrari’s three-stop strategy in Barcelona as Hamilton took victory, and to add salt into the wound Antonelli retired late after passing Russell for second. Russell then took victory at the Red Bull Ring, while Antonelli was embroiled in a battle with Verstappen for second after a scrappy opening couple of laps cost him in the early stages.

Antonelli was then tasked with chasing down Leclerc for victory at Silverstone, but his efforts were hampered when a part of his wheel shield dislodged itself and required two extra stops to identify and fix. A resulting track limits penalty cost Antonelli any points from his trip to the UK.

This spell of misfortune cut his title lead to 25 points, and he needed to stop the rot in Belgium. After taking pole at Spa-Francorchamps, Antonelli was dispatched by Verstappen on the run to Eau Rouge - but the Red Bull driver had used up his battery and was vulnerable to a retaliatory attack along the Kemmel straight. Further back, Russell had already run out of battery and was mobbed on his way into Les Combes, which led to contact with Hamilton and an ignominious end in the gravel.

Antonelli faced a fight for the win, however. Having completed his stop for hard tyres at the end of the 18th lap, a virtual safety car emerged for debris two laps later - which allowed Leclerc to take a cheap stop and emerge in front of the championship leader. The yet-to-stop Norris was brushed aside by both shortly after the resumption of the race, and Antonelli proceeded to scythe away at Leclerc’s 2.8s lead once the McLaren was cleared.

It proved somewhat straightforward once Antonelli had got there, as he breezed around the outside of the Ferrari on lap 34 to reclaim first position - and subsequently, put another 25 points on Russell.

19th to first in front of his home Monza crowd

Antonelli's charge from the back to win his home race will go down as a legendary performance

Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images

Monza presented a gilt-edged opportunity for Russell to close the points gap to Antonelli in the championship, as the home favourite was encumbered by a series of grid penalties that put him towards the back of the grid. There was seemingly one obstacle in Russell’s way: surprise polesitter Pierre Gasly, who’d put together a stunning lap on the Saturday afternoon and sent the Alpine garage into raptures.

Gasly actually preserved the lead at the start, but Russell dispatched the Frenchman on the second tour - and then retained the lead from a standing restart once Leclerc had dumped his Ferrari into the barrier at the Parabolica. It was looking relatively good for Russell, but Antonelli was in no mood to let his team-mate erode at his championship lead.

He thus roared through the lower midfield up until the red flag emerged, running on the hard tyre and expecting to go long into the race before making a later switch to a softer compound. The red flag derailed this slightly, although Antonelli’s subsequent switch to the medium ultimately gave him the tyre performance needed to continue his assault through the field. He made up 18 places in 18 laps, eventually putting a move on Russell to grab the lead on the 18th tour.

The two continued to duel as they had done in Canada, although Mercedes eventually asked its drivers to pull away and stop allowing Verstappen to keep in touch with overtake mode - Russell again ahead of Antonelli at this juncture.

But the emergence of a VSC changed the race’s dynamic. When Lance Stroll peeled off with a hydraulic issue, it presented Antonelli with a chance to discard his mediums for another set, while Russell stayed on the hard tyre; Mercedes chose to split its strategy, not knowing if Antonelli would catch up.

He did. Russell initially stalled out his team-mate's progress with some solid pace, but the hards started to succumb to their age; Antonelli then shook off an excursion at Turn 2, dusted himself down, and moved past his team-mate on lap 50. Of all the title-defining moments on this list, Monza feels like the most conclusive.

Turning around a tough Sepang, as Russell retires again

Another DNF for Russell was punished by Antonelli at Sepang

Photo by: Liam Fabre

Mercedes had a lot riding on F1’s first visit to Malaysia since 2017, and a race hastily added to the calendar as the Bahrain Grand Prix organisers struck a deal with the Sepang circuit. First, there were a series of updates to the floor, plus visually different sidepods which the team hoped would allow it to pull clear of Ferrari and a resurgent Red Bull outfit. Secondly, title sponsor Petronas (Malaysia’s largest oil company) dominated the livery with a teal hue.

The problem was that the updates proved difficult to get working; although the Mercedes drivers felt the benefit of the updates in the high-speed corners, it proved very difficult to get the car set-up into the right window. Antonelli sat behind Verstappen and Hamilton on the grid, with Russell seventh - both helped by Hadjar’s grid penalty.

Then, the heavens opened. Heavy rain pushed back the start of the race and, once the field spooled up to start running, a series of power unit glitches across the field prompted the FIA to stop the race. Once the fix was circulated, the race was able to begin - over 90 minutes later than the original scheduled time.

When Verstappen struggled to pull away in the damp conditions, Antonelli and Russell burst to the front of the field; Mercedes stuck with intermediate tyres for the start, and this yielded immediate dividends. When the circuit began to dry, Valtteri Bottas’ excursion in the gravel presented a VSC and a perfect chance to trade in the inters for slicks.

Antonelli was perhaps careful on the restart, and Verstappen found great momentum through the opening corners to retake the lead from the Italian - Russell following the Red Bull past to leave Antonelli sitting third. The two Mercedes switched positions again on the 21st lap, as Antonelli put a move on his team-mate, and the pair looked like locking out the remaining podium places until a safety car emerged.

Alex Albon’s stoppage at the side of the road prompted this and, as the race appeared set to resume, Russell’s car ground to a halt as he suffered another power unit issue at a crunch moment of the season. Having pulled back some points with a win in Baku, Russell’s retirement meant that he was staring down the barrel of an 84-point deficit to his team-mate. It was pretty much match-point to Antonelli after the Malaysia round.

Antonelli fights off illness to seal the title with third in Mexico 

Fever and championship nerves left Antonelli struggling going into Mexico

Photo by: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images

If there's one thing you want as champion-elect, with just one round between you and the title, it's an easy ride. As Antonelli woke up ahead of the Mexico City weekend with a fever, it was evident that he wouldn't be granted a clean run.

Antonelli missed the Thursday media sessions, just about had enough energy to work his way through Friday practice, and looked like he was back to his best after narrowly missing out on top spot during FP3. Yet, qualifying just didn't come off for him; he managed to collect the fifth-fastest time, but he was slower than his team-mate Russell and admitted that he was driving tired and tense. The championship talk was perhaps getting to him a little bit, as were the remains of his illness from earlier in the week.

He suggested he would "bombard" himself with melatonin to help him sleep after qualifying and, from fourth on the grid (as Verstappen took a one-place grid penalty) he was raring to go. It was a circumspect drive, but a well-judged effort and not without its risky moments.

Although Antonelli lost a place to a hard-charging Verstappen at the start, as the four-time champion split the two Mercedes cars into Turn 1 and then took advantage of the warring Ferraris, the Italian at least got clear of Russell in the meantime. From there, Antonelli was prepared to sit and lock down fourth place, although led for a spell after going long - up to lap 41 - on the soft tyre. 

But he was not afforded the chance to go gently into that good night; Bottas' suspension failure presented a 35-minute red flag, putting Antonelli through the wringer of another standing start with 24 laps remaining. Crucially, Antonelli kept fifth-placed Norris at bay despite a less-ideal start on the dirty side of the grid, but he was not content with just finishing fourth. A wounded Leclerc, bearing a heavy flat spot on his front left tyre, was ripe for the picking on the following lap - and Antonelli made the perfect dive past the Monegasque to ensure he'd stand on the podium.

There, he soaked in the adulation of winning his first world title, soundtracked to Nessun Dorma in front of the Foro Sol crowds. 

Antonelli celebrates his maiden F1 world title

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images