‘Just the beginning’ for Antonelli, F1’s prodigious, charismatic new king

Kimi Antonelli, F1’s youngest world champion at 20, has become the life and soul of the paddock with his personality.

Antonelli was only 19 when he took his inaugural pole position and won his first grand prix in China [Eloisa Sanchez/Reuters]

Kimi Antonelli has sparked affectionate tributes from all quarters of the Formula One paddock after becoming the sport’s youngest world champion at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

The 20-year-old Italian finished third for Mercedes on Sunday behind Red Bull’s four-time champion Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton – who then hoisted him aloft as a carnival of celebrations began.

Mercedes’s Kimi Antonelli celebrates with this team after finishing third in the race and clinching the 2026 Formula One World Championship [Daniel Becerril/Reuters]

“It’s a very special day,” said Antonelli’s race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington, who has worked with seven-time champions Michael Schumacher and Hamilton and regards the new champion – Italy’s first since 1953 – as another generational talent.

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“I feel privileged to work with him and to put up with his pranks and tricks, including the water pistols and the rest. It’s him all over.”

Antonelli said it was “truly incredible” to share the podium with multiple champions Verstappen and Hamilton.

“I’m looking forward to more battles with them in the future,” he said. “This is just the beginning. This win is just going to mark a beginning, a new point to build on and keep improving and keep trying to win a championship.”

Lived and breathed motorsports his whole life

The sound of engines and smell of exhausts have been part of Antonelli’s life since he was a child.

The Mercedes driver was barely 10 when he sat on his father Marco’s lap behind the wheel of a competition Lamborghini, changing gears and guiding the car around a racetrack while his father operated the brake and accelerator pedals.

He was eight when his racing driver dad smuggled him into the Formula One paddock for the first time inside a stack of tyres with an umbrella on top.

“Sometimes we may look like lunatics because we just talk about racing,” Antonelli said of his close relationship with his father and the passion they share.

“We like to analyse things together. Racing is always in our minds. We have a lot of fun together, and racing is our passion. It’s what I live for.”

The son of Elisabetta, who stays out of the spotlight, and Marco, a former driver and team principal, Andrea Kimi Antonelli started karting at seven although his father, surprisingly, opposed a career in the sport.

“He didn’t want me to become a driver because motorsports can be very cruel at times, especially financially, since it’s very hard to succeed without the support of the right people,” the younger Antonelli said before the US Grand Prix last month.

“He taught me everything he knew, first about racing and now about life. It’s really important to have him by my side during races.”

Mercedes’s Kimi Antonelli celebrates on the podium with team principal Toto Wolff after winning the Monaco Grand Prix [Yves Herman/Reuters]

Prodigy picked up by Mercedes at 11

Antonelli was spotted and, at the age of 11, recruited by Frenchman Gwen Lagrue, head of the Mercedes junior driver programme, where Hamilton was his mentor.

“He’s incredibly impressive and deserves to be world champion,” said the Englishman, whose record of seven world titles may one day come under threat from his protege.

Antonelli began in karting, dominating the sport in 2020 and 2021. He was Italian and German F4 champion in 2022 and champion in Formula Regional in F3 cars in 2023.

He skipped F3 and went straight into F2 in 2024. Although he finished only sixth, another leap followed when Hamilton left Mercedes for Ferrari.

There were a few bumps and brushes in his rookie year in F1, but he still managed a second place in Sao Paulo and two other podiums, finishing seventh in the championship.

“I said from the start that he had tremendous talent and a great personality but that he would need a season in F1 to grow and learn through both great moments and setbacks,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said.

“He was catapulted into F1, and it wasn’t easy, even though he had always driven very well. He had to handle the pressure, the media and the expectations.”

Always cheerful, smiling and full of jokes, Antonelli has become the life and soul of the paddock. Every news conference is laced with humour with other drivers joining in the fun.

Congratulations from across the world poured in for the new champion, including from Italian compatriots, such as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, football clubs and multiple-time Grand Slam champion Jannik Sinner, who teamed up with Antonelli to give Italy several victorious weekends as the duo triumphed concurrently in their sports.

Six races that made Antonelli world champion

Not only did he become the youngest driver ever to take pole position, but Antonelli, still only 19, went on to win his first grand prix, becoming the second youngest F1 winner behind Verstappen.

Despite teammate George Russell taking pole, the race again belonged to Antonelli, who made it four wins on the bounce as Russell was forced to retire on lap 30 due to a battery/power unit failure, costing him a potential 18 points and widening the gap.

Two weeks later, the Italian again started from pole to make it five wins from five with a first victory on the tight, legendary Monaco street circuit. After six races, Antonelli led Hamilton and Russell by 66 and 68 points, respectively.

While Russell started on pole, Antonelli, in his first race as a 20-year-old, was forced to start from 19th on the grid due to an engine penalty. He then proceeded to pick his way through the field and passed Russell to become the first Italian to win the race since Ludovico Scarfiotti 60 years earlier.

September 26: Azerbaijan

On another street circuit in Baku, Antonelli made a rare error when he pranged his car into a wall during qualifying while Russell took pole. Antonelli didn’t make it on o the podium this time but worked his way up to fifth to puncture Russell’s optimism and close in on the title.

Antonelli finished second behind a resurgent Verstappen but stretched his lead after Russell, who was running third at the time, was forced to retire just a few laps from the finish.

That took his lead in the championship race to 84 points, essentially ending Russell’s bid to challenge him and signalling the dawn of a new era in Formula One.

Antonelli celebrates with champagne on the podium after winning the Italian Grand Prix with with his Mercedes teammate George Russell in second place [Claudia Greco/Reuters]

年仅 20 岁的基米·安东内利是 F1 历史上最年轻的世界冠军，他凭借自己的个性成为了围场的灵魂人物。

安东内利年仅 19 岁时就获得了他的首个杆位，并在中国赢得了他的首个大奖赛冠军。[Eloisa Sanchez/路透社]

基米·安东内利在墨西哥城大奖赛上成为这项运动中最年轻的世界冠军后，引发了F1赛场各方人士的热烈祝贺。

这位 20 岁的意大利车手周日代表梅赛德斯车队获得第三名，排在红牛车队的四届世界冠军马克斯·维斯塔潘和法拉利车队的七届世界冠军刘易斯·汉密尔顿之后——随后汉密尔顿将他高高举起，开始了狂欢式的庆祝活动。

梅赛德斯车队的基米·安东内利在比赛中获得第三名并赢得2026年一级方程式世界冠军后与车队庆祝。[丹尼尔·贝塞里尔/路透社]

“这是非常特别的一天，”安东内利的赛车工程师彼得·“博诺”·博宁顿说道。他曾与七届世界冠军迈克尔·舒马赫和汉密尔顿共事，并将这位新冠军——自 1953 年以来意大利的首位世界冠军——视为又一位一代天才。

列表 1/4：汉密尔顿呼吁巴勒斯坦和刚果民主共和国获得自由，卢旺达成为F1焦点

达喀尔拉力赛2027因中东冲突而移出沙特阿拉伯（共4个列表，此为第2个）

梅赛德斯车队领队安东内利表示，梅赛德斯不再拥有F1最快的赛车（共4条记录中的第3条）。

F1领头羊基米·安东内利在意大利大奖赛上上演惊天逆转，最终夺冠（共4条）

“能和他一起工作，忍受他的恶作剧和诡计，包括水枪之类的，我感到非常荣幸。他浑身上下都散发着他特有的气息。”

安东内利表示，能与多届冠军维斯塔潘和汉密尔顿一起登上领奖台“真是不可思议”。

“我期待未来与他们进行更多较量，”他说。“这仅仅是个开始。这场胜利只是一个起点，一个新的起点，我们可以以此为基础继续进步，并继续努力赢得总冠军。”

他一生都热爱赛车运动。

引擎的轰鸣声和汽车尾气的味道，从小就是安东内利生活的一部分。

这位梅赛德斯车手当时还不到 10 岁，就坐在父亲马尔科的腿上，驾驶着一辆兰博基尼赛车，在赛道上换挡和操控赛车，而他的父亲则负责操作刹车和油门踏板。

他八岁那年，身为赛车手的父亲第一次把他偷偷带进了F1赛车场的围场，当时他藏在一堆轮胎里，上面还撑着一把伞。

“有时候我们看起来像疯子，因为我们总是谈论赛车，”安东内利谈到他与父亲的亲密关系以及他们共同的热情时说道。

“我们喜欢一起分析问题。赛车始终是我们心中的重心。我们在一起非常开心，赛车是我们的激情所在，也是我生活的意义所在。”

安德烈·基米·安东内利是伊丽莎白·安东内利和马尔科·安东内利的儿子，伊丽莎白·安东内利为人低调，他的父亲马尔科曾是一名赛车手和车队负责人。安德烈·基米·安东内利七岁就开始参加卡丁车比赛，但出人意料的是，他的父亲反对他从事这项运动。

“他不想让我成为一名赛车手，因为赛车运动有时非常残酷，尤其是在经济方面，因为如果没有合适的人的支持，很难取得成功，”小安东内利在上个月的美国大奖赛前说道。

“他教会了我他所知道的一切，先是关于赛车，现在是关于人生。比赛时有他在我身边真的非常重要。”

梅赛德斯车队的基米·安东内利在赢得摩纳哥大奖赛后，与车队领队托托·沃尔夫在领奖台上庆祝。[Yves Herman/路透社]

Prodigy 于 11 点被梅赛德斯选中

安东内利被法国人格温·拉格鲁发现，11 岁时被招募加入梅赛德斯青年车手项目，汉密尔顿是他的导师。

“他非常出色，理应成为世界冠军，”这位英国人说道，他七次获得世界冠军的纪录或许有一天会受到他的得意门生的威胁。

安东内利从卡丁车起步，在 2020 年和 2021 年称霸卡丁车赛场。他于 2022 年获得意大利和德国 F4 锦标赛冠军，并于 2023 年获得 F3 赛车区域方程式锦标赛冠军。

他跳过了F3，直接在2024年进入了F2。虽然他最终只获得了第六名，但当汉密尔顿离开梅赛德斯加盟法拉利后，他又迎来了一次飞跃。

他在F1新秀赛季经历了一些波折，但仍然在圣保罗站获得第二名，并在另外两站登上领奖台，最终获得锦标赛第七名。

“我从一开始就说过，他天赋异禀，个性鲜明，但他需要一个赛季的F1生涯来成长，并在成功和挫折中不断学习，”梅赛德斯车队负责人托托·沃尔夫说道。

“他被推入F1赛场，这并不容易，尽管他一直以来驾驶技术都很出色。他必须应对压力、媒体和外界的期望。”

安东内利总是那么开朗乐观，笑容满面，妙语连珠，已经成为赛场上的灵魂人物。每次新闻发布会都充满了幽默，其他车手也会加入其中，一起开怀大笑。

来自世界各地的祝贺纷至沓来，祝贺这位新冠军，其中包括意大利同胞，如总理乔治亚·梅洛尼、足球俱乐部以及多次大满贯冠军得主扬尼克·辛纳。辛纳与安东内利联手，为意大利带来了几个胜利的周末，两人在各自的体育项目中同时取得了胜利。

六场比赛成就了安东内利的世界冠军

他不仅成为有史以来最年轻的杆位车手，而且年仅 19 岁的安东内利还赢得了他的第一个大奖赛冠军，成为继维斯塔潘之后第二年轻的 F1 冠军。

尽管队友乔治·拉塞尔获得了杆位，但比赛再次属于安东内利，他取得了四连胜，因为拉塞尔在第 30 圈因电池/动力单元故障被迫退赛，这让他损失了潜在的 18 个积分，并拉大了差距。

两周后，这位意大利车手再次从杆位发车，取得了五战五胜的佳绩，并在狭窄而传奇的摩纳哥街道赛道上斩获首胜。六场比赛过后，安东内利分别领先汉密尔顿和拉塞尔66分和68分。

拉塞尔从杆位发车，而年仅20岁的安东内利由于引擎违规被罚，被迫从第19位起跑。这是他首次参赛。随后，他一路过关斩将，最终超越拉塞尔，成为自60年前卢多维科·斯卡菲奥蒂之后首位赢得比赛的意大利车手。

9月26日：阿塞拜疆

在巴库的另一条街道赛道上，安东内利在排位赛中罕见地犯错，撞墙，而拉塞尔则夺得杆位。安东内利这次未能登上领奖台，但他奋力追赶至第五名，打击了拉塞尔的信心，也让他离总冠军更近了一步。

安东内利最终位列第二，落后于强势反弹的维斯塔潘，但随后拉塞尔（当时排名第三）在距离终点仅剩几圈时被迫退赛，安东内利的领先优势进一步扩大。

这使他在锦标赛积分榜上的领先优势扩大到 84 分，基本上终结了拉塞尔挑战他的机会，并标志着一级方程式赛车新时代的到来。

安东内利在赢得意大利大奖赛后登上领奖台，用香槟庆祝，他的梅赛德斯队友乔治·拉塞尔获得第二名。[克劳迪娅·格雷科/路透社]