Kimi Antonelli has sparked affectionate tributes from all quarters of the Formula One paddock after becoming the sport’s youngest world champion at the Mexico City Grand Prix. The 20-year-old Italian finished third for Mercedes on Sunday behind Red Bull’s four-time champion Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton – who then hoisted him aloft as a carnival of celebrations began. It’s him all over.” Antonelli said it was “truly incredible” to share the podium with multiple champions Verstappen and Hamilton.
This win is just going to mark a beginning, a new point to build on and keep improving and keep trying to win a championship.” The sound of engines and smell of exhausts have been part of Antonelli’s life since he was a child. The Mercedes driver was barely 10 when he sat on his father Marco’s lap behind the wheel of a competition Lamborghini, changing gears and guiding the car around a racetrack while his father operated the brake and accelerator pedals. He was eight when his racing driver dad smuggled him into the Formula One paddock for the first time inside a stack of tyres with an umbrella on top.
Racing is always in our minds. We have a lot of fun together, and racing is our passion. It’s what I live for.” The son of Elisabetta, who stays out of the spotlight, and Marco, a former driver and team principal, Andrea Kimi Antonelli started karting at seven although his father, surprisingly, opposed a career in the sport.
It’s really important to have him by my side during races.” Antonelli was spotted and, at the age of 11, recruited by Frenchman Gwen Lagrue, head of the Mercedes junior driver programme, where Hamilton was his mentor. Antonelli began in karting, dominating the sport in 2020 and 2021. He was Italian and German F4 champion in 2022 and champion in Formula Regional in F3 cars in 2023.
He skipped F3 and went straight into F2 in 2024. Although he finished only sixth, another leap followed when Hamilton left Mercedes for Ferrari. There were a few bumps and brushes in his rookie year in F1, but he still managed a second place in Sao Paulo and two other podiums, finishing seventh in the championship.
He had to handle the pressure, the media and the expectations.” Always cheerful, smiling and full of jokes, Antonelli has become the life and soul of the paddock. Every news conference is laced with humour with other drivers joining in the fun. Congratulations from across the world poured in for the new champion, including from Italian compatriots, such as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, football clubs and multiple-time Grand Slam champion Jannik Sinner, who teamed up with Antonelli to give Italy several victorious weekends as the duo triumphed concurrently in their sports.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
