Antonelli is F1 world champion: at 20, the youngest ever

Update, November 3, 2026: we removed the questions that repeated the text.

Kimi Antonelli is Formula 1 world champion at 20 years and 68 days old, the youngest in the history of the category. The title came on Sunday, 1 November 2026, with third place at the Mexico City Grand Prix, behind Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.¹²³ Antonelli is also the first Italian to win the drivers’ world championship since Alberto Ascari in 1953. He settled the matter with four races still to go.⁴²

How did Antonelli win the title at the Mexican Grand Prix?

Antonelli started from fourth on the grid. In qualifying, pole position had gone to Hamilton, the first of his career with Ferrari. Antonelli’s teammate George Russell was second and Charles Leclerc third.⁵⁴ Verstappen was supposed to start fourth, but a one-place grid penalty, for a collision with Liam Lawson in second practice, moved Antonelli into that slot.⁶ To win the title in Mexico City, Antonelli only needed to finish ninth or better, whatever his rivals did. His race was relatively smooth. Russell, on the other hand, compromised his race even before the first corner because of a problem with the hybrid system on his Mercedes.⁴²⁶ After the finish, Antonelli said he lost about two seconds on the last lap because he couldn’t see the track, overcome by emotion and tears. His parents and sister were there to hug him.¹²³ Verstappen won for the sixth time in Mexico City. Hamilton, who started from pole, lost the lead of the race in a duel with his teammate Leclerc.¹⁶

How does the drivers’ world championship work?

The drivers’ world championship is the season’s individual standings: at every Grand Prix drivers earn points based on where they finish, and the title goes to whoever has the most at the end. That is why Antonelli was able to celebrate before the last race.² With third place in Mexico he rose to 380 points, with four races still to run. Verstappen, on 261, overtook Hamilton, on 259, and the two will fight for second place until the end.² This season Antonelli has taken nine wins and 16 podiums in 19 of the 23 Grands Prix on the calendar. For Mercedes it is the first drivers’ title since 2020.⁴

What does a red flag mean in Formula 1?

The red flag is the signal that suspends the race. In Mexico it was shown around lap 45, after Valtteri Bottas’s crash, and the race then restarted.²³ Antonelli finished third in a race that was stopped and restarted, won by Verstappen. In the end the suspension did not change his result.²³

What record did Antonelli break?

The previous record for youngest champion belonged to Sebastian Vettel, who won his first title in 2010 at 23 years and 134 days. Antonelli beat it by more than three years.⁴² The last Italian champion was Alberto Ascari, who in 1953 won his second and last title with Ferrari. Seventy-three years have passed.⁴⁷ Antonelli turned 20 in August and has dominated Formula 1 in his second season in the category.⁸

What happens now and how many people watched the race?

The championship continues with the rounds in Brazil and Las Vegas. The drivers’ title is already decided, however, and the fight remains open only for the positions behind.² In Italy the race drew more than 2 million 44 thousand average viewers in total on Sky, the highest figure for a Formula 1 Grand Prix on the platform since 2022. The share was 11.2%, with a peak of 15.3% on the last lap.⁷ The delayed broadcast on TV8 drew more than 1 million 735 thousand average viewers in total, with an 11.6% share.⁷

This article was written by artificial intelligence from the sources cited, without human review. Automatic newsroom by Redazia.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Kimi Antonelli becomes youngest F1 champion as Max Verstappen wins race, Euronews, 2026-11-02 ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Kimi Antonelli makes history as youngest F1 champion, Deutsche Welle, 2026-11-02 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

3. How Antonelli became Formula One’s youngest world champion, France 24, 2026-11-02 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Formel 1: Kimi Antonelli ist jüngster Weltmeister der Geschichte, Der Spiegel, 2026-11-01 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

5. F1: Hamilton takes first Ferrari pole; Antonelli starts fourth in Mexico, Al Jazeera, 2026-11-01 ↩

6. F1 in Mexico City: We have a new World Champion, Ars Technica, 2026-11-02 ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. Formula 1, su Sky oltre 2 milioni di spettatori medi per il trionfo mondiale di Kimi Antonelli, Key4biz, 2026-11-02 ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. Antonelli - the boy ‘born in a garage’ who became world champion, BBC News · World, 2026-11-01 ↩