Kimi Antonelli has successfully etched his name into the Formula One record books as world champion and as a deserved and popular winner whose extraordinary skill has been nothing short of thrilling to watch.
In accepting his debut F1 title for Mercedes, the 20-year-old Antonelli, with his tousled hair and charming boyish looks, is the youngest driver to claim the sport’s crown and the first Italian to do so since Alberto Ascari won in 1953. It is Mercedes’ first drivers’ championship since Hamilton last won in 2020 and the team’s 10th.
The youngster closed it out unsurprisingly with the cool command the greats of the sport display by taking third place in Mexico City, a race won after no little drama by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, from the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton, who was left fuming with his teammate Charles Leclerc, who finished fourth.
Afterwards Antonelli was clearly moved and said it was a moment that would live forever but had left him almost speechless. His race engineer, Peter Bonnington, spoke perhaps for everyone who has watched the Italian this season, noting that this was just the beginning for Antonelli.
“It is a very special day, a young man has broken the record for the youngest world champion,” he said. “It is the first of many I reckon, I am just super happy for him, stoked.”
The Italian has been on top for almost the entire season, having taken the lead after the third round in Japan. With Mercedes proving to be the class of the field in the opening half of the year under the new regulations, Antonelli made the most of it and established a dominant lead. He won five of the first six races, outracing his teammate George Russell, who had been the pre-season favourite.
Source: The Guardian
