Kimi Antonelli sat on his father Marco’s lap at two years old, hands wrapped around a steering wheel while his dad worked the pedals. Seventeen years later, the boy from Bologna was steering a Mercedes through the Mexico City night to become Formula 1 World Champion, ending Italy’s 73-year wait for a homegrown title. The path between those two moments was not clean or inevitable, despite how the result reads. It was built from 18 karting championships, a broken wrist on a podium finish, tears in a Monza tire wall, and a rough, grinding rookie year that nearly cost him everything.
From Marco’s lap to Mercedes in twelve relentless years
Antonelli was driving his own kart at five and competing professionally by seven. Between 2015 and 2021, he accumulated 18 karting championship titles at national and international level. Mercedes talent scout Gwen Lru identified him and signed him at 12. In 2022, he won both the Italian Formula 4 and German ADAC F4 championships and took a gold medal at the FIA Motorsport Games Formula 4 Cup at Paul Ricard while nursing a broken wrist. Two Formula Regional titles followed in 2023, along with a winning GT debut that echoed his father’s own career. When Mercedes needed a replacement for Lewis Hamilton, who had announced his departure for Ferrari in February of that year, Antonelli’s name surfaced immediately. Critics pushed back hard. He was 17. He had not yet contested a single Formula 2 race. But Toto Wolff wanted to see for himself, and private tests followed at Barcelona, Imola, Spa, and Silverstone before the moment that nearly derailed everything.
At Monza FP1, Antonelli took George Russell’s W15 onto the circuit in front of the world. He was immediately quick, then immediately in the wall, losing control into the Parabolica and burying the car in the tire barrier. He admitted afterward that he shed tears. As it turned out, the decision had already been made. Wolff announced the following day that Antonelli had done enough. He would take Hamilton’s seat.
A brutal rookie year, and then something clicked
The 2025 season opened in Melbourne with Antonelli knocked out in Q1 in 16th. He recovered to finish fourth in the race, impressive for a debut, but the pattern of the year was already forming. Raw, breathtaking speed alongside costly edges. He became the youngest driver ever to lead a Grand Prix in Japan. He took his first sprint pole in Miami. But there were crashes in Monaco qualifying, a retirement from his home race at Imola with his high school classmates watching from the grandstand, and further DNFs at Barcelona, Silverstone, and the Red Bull Ring, where he locked the rear brakes and collected Max Verstappen on lap one. Back at Monza for his home race, Wolff called his weekend underwhelming. The pressure was unmistakable.
What followed was a methodical rebuilding. Race engineer Pete Bonington, whose previous two drivers had been Hamilton and Michael Schumacher, helped Antonelli begin converting pace into results. A front-row start in Sao Paulo led to a podium. Third place came under the Las Vegas lights. He closed his rookie season seventh in the standings.
The season that silenced every critic
Mercedes arrived in 2026 with what paddock voices called a rocket ship under the new regulations. Antonelli and Russell went one-two in Melbourne. Then in Shanghai, Antonelli became the youngest Formula 1 pole sitter in the sport’s history at 19 years old, converted it into a maiden victory, and took the fastest lap. Wolff’s post-race radio captured the moment with undisguised satisfaction: ‘He’s too young. We shouldn’t put him in a Mercedes. Put him in a smaller team. He needed experience. Look at the mistakes he make. Here we go, Kimmy. Victory.’
What followed was a run of five consecutive victories, including pole and win doubles in Japan, Miami, and Canada before a dominant flag-to-flag performance at Monaco that made him the youngest driver in F1 history to achieve a grand slam. Then came the Monza race that may define his career entirely. A new power unit forced a 19th-place grid start at the circuit where he had crashed in FP1 two years earlier and been called underwhelming one year prior. He won anyway. Not for over 40 years had a driver won from so far back on the grid, and not for 60 years had an Italian driver won the Italian Grand Prix.
The championship lead became unassailable. A second place in Malaysia and a third in Singapore extended his points advantage to 102. The title was confirmed in Mexico City.
The boy who kept his hands on the wheel
A Mercedes W16, engine cooling after the Mexico City finish, pit lane quiet around it.
Kimi Antonelli, 73 years after Alberto Ascari last did it for Italy, is champion of the world.
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