Explainer
Kimi Antonelli: How Formula 1's newest world champion has rewritten the record books at barely 20 years of age
Explaining the significance Kimi Antonelli's world championship triumph carries when placed in historical context; see the records the young Mercedes driver has broken during his first two seasons in Formula 1
Sunday 1 November 2026 22:53, UK
Formula 1 has its 36th world champion after Kimi Antonelli clinched his maiden title by finishing third at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The Italian youngster has reached the summit of motorsport in just his second season at the top level after a stellar campaign in which he has won nine races for Mercedes.
And while a world championship triumph for any driver is notable, Antonelli's first title carries particularly strong historical significance.
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Beating Vettel's 16-year youngest benchmark
Formula 1 has a new youngest world champion in the sport's 76-year history.
After holding the record for 16 years, Sebastian Vettel spell as F1's youngest-ever champion has been beaten - by a full three years.
Vettel was aged 23 years and 134 days when he won the first of his four world titles with Red Bull in 2010. Antonelli clinched his maiden crown aged 20 years and 68 days, a record that may well stand for decades - if not, all time.
Antonelli also follows Jacques Villeneuve (1997) and Lewis Hamilton (2008) in winning his first F1 title in just his second season competing at motorsport's top level.
Ending Italy's seven-decade wait for another champion
Antonelli has also made history as an Italian driver in F1.
Considering an Italian won three of the first four Drivers' Championships following F1's inception in 1950, and Ferrari is the sport's most successful team, there had been a dearth of individual success in recent decades before Antonelli came along.
Antonelli is Italy's first world champion since 1953, when Alberto Ascari clinched his second and final title.
Antonelli's nine wins this year have already put him second to Ascari (13) in the list of Italian race winners.
One of those wins came on home soil, at Monza in September, which made Antonelli the first Italian winner of the Italian Grand Prix since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966.
The other records Antonelli has beaten
While Max Verstappen's win as an 18-year-old at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix remains the youngest for a driver in F1, Antonelli is the only driver to win multiple races as a teenager.
He won six races before his 20th birthday in August.
He did become the sport's youngest polesitter (China) and the youngest to lead the world championship (Japan) this year, along with the youngest to claim a pole-win-fastest lap hat-trick (China). He is also the youngest to achieve a Grand Slam - which requires a driver to add the lead of every race lap to a hat-trick - in Monaco.
In addition, he became the first driver to win his first five races in succession thanks to an unbeaten run from China to Monaco.
He was already the youngest driver to lead a race and claim a fastest race lap, feats he achieved as an 18-year-old in 2025.
Formula 1 next heads to Brazil for the final leg of the triple header with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from November 6-8, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW, no contract.
