Italian Kimi Antonelli remains the runaway leader of the Formula 1 world championship. He is 84 points clear of his Mercedes team-mate George Russell, and Lewis Hamilton is 106 points behind in third.
For readers who don’t follow motor racing, it helps to understand the scale of that. Formula 1 is the top level of the sport: 22 of the best drivers in the world racing cars that cost many millions of USD to develop, on circuits across five continents. Winning a single race is a career highlight for most drivers. Antonelli has won eight, in only his second year in the sport.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was born in Bologna on 25 August 2006. His father, Marco, has been a constant presence in his career. After his first pole position, Antonelli described him as a rock he could always rely on.
His rise through the junior ranks was unusually fast. After back-to-back European karting titles, he moved into single-seater cars in 2022, aged 15. In his first season he won both the Italian and German Formula 4 championships, and Mercedes signed him to its young driver programme. He then took the Formula Regional Middle East and European titles in 2023 and raced in Formula 2, one step below F1, in 2024.
Replacing a legend
In January 2025, aged 18, Antonelli took the seat vacated by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton when Hamilton moved to Ferrari. It was one of the most closely watched debuts in years: a teenager stepping into the car of the most successful driver of the modern era.
He made an early mark. In May 2025, in only his sixth race weekend, he qualified fastest for the sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix. That made him the youngest driver ever to start an F1 race from pole position, the front of the grid, in any format. He beat Sebastian Vettel’s record from 2008 by more than two years. He finished his debut season seventh overall with 150 points.
A record-breaking 2026
Everything came together this year. Antonelli won his first race at the Chinese Grand Prix in March, then won again in Japan and Miami. That made him the youngest driver in history to win three races in a row.
Only two other drivers, Damon Hill and Mika Häkkinen, had won three consecutive races starting with their first win. He also became the youngest driver ever to lead the world championship, and the first teenager to do so.
The wins kept coming. By the summer break he had won in China, Japan, Miami, Canada, Monaco and Belgium. At his home race in Monza, Italy, he started 19th, near the very back of the grid, because of an engine penalty, and still won.
Overtaking almost the entire field is rare, and on Italian soil it was an especially popular victory. He then won the first-ever Formula 1 race on Madrid’s new street circuit in September, his eighth victory of the season.
In Azerbaijan, he recovered from a qualifying crash that left him starting 16th to finish fifth, while Russell took the victory. His only two rounds without points this season, in Barcelona and Britain, were caused by mechanical failures rather than driver errors.
What comes next
Antonelli now leads the championship with 320 points to Russell’s 236. The title isn’t decided yet, since several races remain and a lead can shrink quickly in F1. But with an 84-point cushion, Antonelli is in the strongest position of anyone on the grid.
If he wins, he will be the youngest world champion ever, a record held since 2010 by Sebastian Vettel, who won his first title at 23. For a driver who was still racing in the junior categories two years ago, that would be a remarkable achievement.