Components 1 has its thirty sixth world champion after Kimi Antonelli clinched his maiden title by ending third on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix.
The Italian teenager has reached the summit of motorsport in simply his second season on the prime degree after a stellar marketing campaign during which he has gained 9 races for Mercedes.
And whereas a world championship triumph for any driver is notable, Antonelli’s first title carries notably sturdy historic significance.
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Highlights from the 2026 Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix as Antonelli turned the primary Italian world champion since 1953
Beating Vettel’s 16-year youngest benchmark
Components 1 has a brand new youngest world champion within the sport’s 76-year historical past.
After holding the document for 16 years, Sebastian Vettel spell as F1’s youngest-ever champion has been overwhelmed – by a full three years.
Vettel was aged 23 years and 134 days when he gained the primary of his 4 world titles with Pink Bull in 2010.
Antonelli clinched his maiden crown aged 20 years and 68 days, a document that will nicely stand for many years – if not, all time.
In trendy occasions, Antonelli follows Jacques Villeneuve (1997) and Lewis Hamilton (2008) in profitable his first F1 title in simply his second yr competing within the prime class of single-seater racing. Juan-Manuel Fangio additionally gained his first of 5 crowns within the second season of the F1 world championship in 1951, though the Argentine had already been competing in Grand Prix racing earlier than 1950.
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Sebastian Vettel congratulated Kimi Antonelli on breaking his document because the youngest ever Components 1 world champion.
Ending Italy’s seven-decade wait for an additional champion
Antonelli has additionally made historical past as an Italian driver in F1.
Contemplating an Italian gained three of the primary 4 Drivers’ Championships following F1’s inception in 1950, and Ferrari is the game’s most profitable workforce, there had been a dearth of particular person success in current many years earlier than Antonelli got here alongside.
Antonelli is Italy’s first world champion since 1953, when Alberto Ascari clinched his second and remaining title.
Antonelli’s 9 wins this yr have already put him second to Ascari (13) within the record of Italian race winners.
A type of wins got here on dwelling soil, at Monza in September, which made Antonelli the primary Italian winner of the Italian Grand Prix since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966.
The opposite information Antonelli has overwhelmed
Whereas Max Verstappen’s win as an 18-year-old on the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix stays the youngest for a driver in F1, Antonelli is the one driver to win a number of races as a teen.
He gained six races earlier than his twentieth birthday in August.
He did turn out to be the game’s youngest polesitter (China) and the youngest to steer the world championship (Japan) this yr, together with the youngest to assert a pole-win-fastest lap hat-trick (China). He’s additionally the youngest to attain a Grand Slam – which requires a driver so as to add the lead of each race lap to a hat-trick – in Monaco.
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Former World champions Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton raise F1’S latest champion, Kimi Antonelli, onto their shoulders in Mexico.
As well as, he turned the primary driver to win his first 5 races in succession because of an unbeaten run from China to Monaco.
He was already the youngest driver to steer a race and declare a quickest race lap, feats he achieved as an 18-year-old in 2025.
Components 1 subsequent heads to Brazil for the ultimate leg of the triple header with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from November 6-8, reside on Sky Sports activities F1. Stream Sky Sports activities with NOW, no contract.