Kimi Antonelli is rapidly becoming one of the preeminent figures in Formula One. The 19-year-old Mercedes driver won his third race in a row at Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix, cementing himself as the championship front-runner in just his second season on the grid.
And yet the second-youngest driver in the F1 paddock and the soon-to-be-if-not-already superstar of the sport seems wholly unaffected by it all.
Antonelli, who leads Mercedes teammate George Russell by 20 points atop the standings following the weekend in Miami, remains the only driver on the grid to stand on the podium in each of the four Grands Prix this season. But what happened in South Florida was different. For the first time this season, he was tested.
A significant upgrade package from McLaren saw defending champion Lando Norris push Antonelli all weekend, and even beat him in Saturday’s sprint race. Then, with Antonelli starting in pole position on Sunday, a poor getaway off the line saw him lose his initial advantage, opening the door for Norris to slip up from fourth and eventually gain the upper hand in the race. Mercedes outmaneuvered McLaren on a pit stop later on to put Antonelli back into the lead, but also leaving him, for the first time this season, under significant pressure.
And F1’s teenage phenom delivered. No longer with a vastly superior car, Antonelli drove with poise well beyond his 28 Grand Prix weekends of experience. He reached the checkered flag having been under threat for the entire second half of the race to become the clear driver to beat in 2026.
A place among the all-time greats
Normally that would come with a crushing pressure. F1 takes a vast mental toll on its drivers, and one would expect that Antonelli, an Italian driver whom an entire nation has placed its collective hopes on being the first champion from the country in more than 70 years, would bear that burden.
Not quite.
“Well, I’m aware of what’s happening, but I’m not trying to focus too much on that or worry,” Antonelli said Thursday ahead of the on-track action in Miami. “At the end, it’s still a very long season, a lot of races left. And I know on my side I just need to keep raising the bar.”
Antonelli’s win in Miami did more than meet his own personal standards. He made another piece of history with the drive. Antonelli joined Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna, two of F1’s luminaries and all-time greats, as the only drivers to qualify for their first pole and then do so three times in a row. He also matched Damon Hill and Mika Häkkinen, another pair of world champions, as one of just three drivers to rattle off three consecutive wins after picking up their first career victory.
He’s the only driver ever to accomplish both feats. So what does he think about being named among those greats?
“It’s a cool stat, but I don’t really want to think too much about it,” he said. “I’m just going to enjoy the moment, but I know at the same time that we’re just going to get back to work early because obviously we have another break, let’s say, which is not ideal. But yeah, just going to try to prepare Canada the best way possible in order to be back even stronger. But yeah, it’s cool, I guess.”
Antonelli moves throughout the paddock as if he’s not in a position to be the youngest world champion by a significant margin, a mark currently held by Sebastian Vettel at 23 years and 133 days old. (Antonelli would hoist a trophy at 20.) The 2026 season has completed just four Grands Prix, but the Miami weekend pushed the teenager harder than ever before, and he not only rose to meet the challenge, but did so with a sense of joy and wonder that one would expect from someone who just graduated high school last year.
Poise beyond his years
Harping on Antonelli’s age may already seem overplayed, akin to the Jayson Tatum “he’s only 19” NBA twitter meme. And yet brief glimpses throughout the Miami Grand Prix weekend made his youthful personality unavoidable.
It began in Saturday’s press conference, after bouncing back from a discouraging sixth-place result in the sprint to claim pole position for Sunday’s Grand Prix. In the middle of answering a question from a reporter, Antonelli got sidetracked by one of Miami’s numerous concerts for fans throughout the week: “No, I got distracted by the DJ. It looked like Shaquille O’Neal for a second.” (His face lit up later when he was informed that it was indeed the basketball Hall of Famer, or more accurately his alter ego DJ Diesel.) In the same session, Antonelli tried to explain the impact of the high-speed wind on the 94-degree day had on his performance, at first saying it felt like he had “a hairdresser pointed at my face.” He laughed at himself and spent the next minute or so self-deprecatingly attempting to correct himself until, with help of Max Verstappen, he likened the experience to “a hairdresser with a hairdryer pointing at my face.”
The other drivers—including Verstappen, who was once in a similar position himself as the young hotshot on the grid in 2015 at age 18—also appear charmed by Antonelli. The four-time world champion, Cadillac drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto all sought out Antonelli after his win Sunday to congratulate him with hugs.
Perhaps no one in the paddock treats Antonelli with as much respect and care as the man who made the decision to elevate him to Mercedes last season: Toto Wolff. Buzz about the young Italian within the team’s junior ranks had started to build, but Antonelli was still only 18, and Wolff was regularly questioned if he should’ve opted for a more experienced driver.
After the recent run of wins, and with Mercedes already leading Ferrari by 70 points in the constructors’ standings, that decision warrants no criticism now.
“Kimi, that was really impressive,” Wolff said over the radio at the end of the race. “Very impressive, from the beginning to the end.”
He added: “Your driving, that was really good. And you know I like to complain, but there’s nothing to complain [about] today.”
If there were to be any gripe with Antonelli’s performance this season, it would be his starts. Slow launches off the line have become somewhat of a regularity for him, but until Miami, the Mercedes has been so quick that it hasn't mattered. Saturday was a wake-up call, even though Wolff acknowledged the poor start in the sprint was a team error and not on Antonelli. Still, both race starts this past weekend made it clear that even the championship leader can’t get away with repeated errors when the lights go out.
When asked by Sports Illustrated how he’s been able to manage the adversity of the difficult starts off the line, he said with a grin, “I think I lost two places [in the Grand Prix], [in the] sprint I lost six, so a little bit better.”
Then back to the self-critical: “But still, no, it’s not acceptable. I think especially in a weekend like this, that the gaps are a lot closer, it can really change the race… So, I think also with the team, but for sure mainly from me, because I’m still a little bit inconsistent, especially on clutch drop. But I still don’t have that confidence, being consistent with that. I still have a bit of uncertainty, so it’s a big point that needs to be improved. [In the sprint], I was very frustrated and [in the Grand Prix] I just kept it a bit cool, a bit better, and just managed to move on and focus about the race.”
Self-motivation fueling success
Antonelli is always looking inward. And though the pressure of becoming a historic champion looms large, his immediate focus remains on being better himself. As he mentioned, another three-week hiatus awaits the paddock until the Canadian Grand Prix later this month. Russell is the reigning race winner in Montreal and will feel a certain urgency with the way title momentum is trending toward his teammate.
But if he’s supposed to feel any of that stress, he won’t show it. As calm as ever externally, Antonelli is living in the moment. And what a sweet moment it is.
“No, I did not expect it,” Antonelli said on whether he anticipated to be atop the standings at this point in the year. “Obviously we’re living such a good moment. But as I said before, it’s still a very long season and there’s so many things that can change. George for sure is going to be super strong in Canada, he’s always been very strong there, so he’s for sure going to be back at the top.
“But I think I feel much more comfortable in the car, much more in control as well. And I think we’re just going to keep trying our best. I’m going to try to maximize every time I go on track… I’m really proud of the team, of the job they’re doing, and I’m really enjoying the journey.”
More F1 from Sports Illustrated
- Charles Leclerc's Costly Penalty at F1 Miami Grand Prix Explained
- F1 Miami Grand Prix Winners and Losers: Antonelli’s Rally, Leclerc’s Stumble
- F1 Standings After the 2026 Miami Grand Prix
- F1 Miami Grand Prix Results: Kimi Antonelli Beats Lando Norris in Gripping Battle
This article was originally published on www.si.com as F1’s Pressure Cooker Hasn't Slowed Down Kimi Antonelli's Ascent.
