When Kimi Antonelli won the Chinese Grand Prix last weekend, the Mercedes driver joined Formula 1’s record books as the second youngest man to win a race.
Antonelli’s triumph in Shanghai is the latest chapter in one of F1’s most compelling recurring stories as teams continue to bet on young drivers.
From Max Verstappen’s barnstorming debut win in Barcelona to Sebastian Vettel’s rain-soaked masterclass in Monza, youth has repeatedly humbled experience on the grandest stage in motor sport.
Here, we look back at the 10 youngest drivers to have ever stood on the top step of the podium.
10. Robert Kubica 23 years, 6 months, 1 day
2008 Canadian GP
Kubica’s first win in Canada was also his last in F1
Grand Prix Photo
Robert Kubica‘s maiden Formula 1 win was charged with a significance that went well beyond the points he scored.
He had come through Italian karting — there being little domestic motor sport infrastructure in his native Poland for him to use — before progressing through Formula Renault and Formula 3, winning the Formula Renault 3.5 title in 2005 and landing a BMW Sauber test role.
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By
Matt Bishop
When Jacques Villeneuve was dropped mid-season in 2006, Kubica was given his chance and finished third at Monza in only his third grand prix. He was the first Polish driver in Formula 1 history, and arrived on the grid carrying the weight of an entire country’s expectations.
That he raced at Montreal at all in 2008 was remarkable in itself. A year earlier at the same circuit, he had suffered one of the most frightening crashes in the modern era — his BMW barrel-rolling at 140mph (230km/h) into the barriers, the nose of the car torn away, his feet visible through the wreckage. He escaped with a sprained ankle.
On his return, he qualified second and claimed a memorable debut win after Lewis Hamilton collided with Kimi Räikkönen in the pitlane. Kubica headed home a BMW one-two and briefly led the championship.
9. Kimi Räikkönen 23 years, 5 months, 6 days
2003 Malaysian GP
Räikkönen en route to victory in Malaysia
Grand Prix Photo
Räikkönen made his Formula 1 debut with only 23 car races to his name, the Finn given an FIA superlicence in 2001 after team boss Peter Sauber personally vouched for his ability following a test that left engineers quietly stunned.
Räikkönen scored a point on his debut in Australia for Sauber. Within a year he was at McLaren, and within two he was a race winner.
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Matt Bishop
The 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix was the moment Räikkönen announced himself to the wider world. Starting seventh on the grid, he was fourth by the end of lap 1, third by lap 3 after a bold move on Nick Heidfeld, second after Fernando Alonso pittted, and eventually won with a combination of pace and McLaren strategy that made it look straightforward.
It was only the beginning: 2003 ended with Räikkönen second in the championship behind Michael Schumacher, 2005 produced seven wins and a near-title that should arguably have been his, and in 2007 he finally claimed the world championship in one of most dramatic final races in F1’s history.
He won his last of 21 races in 2018 at the United States Grand Prix, 15 years after his first. A remarkable span.
8. Oscar Piastri 23 years, 3 months, 15 days
2024 Hungarian GP
Piastri’s first win came in a tense Hungarian GP
Grand Prix Photo
Oscar Piastri arrived in Formula 1 as arguably the most decorated junior champion in the sport’s history — winning Formula Renault, Formula 3 and Formula 2 in three consecutive seasons — and yet his path to a first grand prix victory proved anything but straightforward.
At the Hungaroring, starting second on the grid, he got the jump on pole-sitter and team-mate Lando Norris at the first corner and immediately began to pull away.
McLaren’s strategy then complicated matters: an undercut attempt brought Norris out ahead of Piastri after the pitstops, handing the lead back to the Briton and sparking a tense internal standoff.
With Piastri catching his team-mate but unable to pass cleanly, McLaren eventually ordered Norris to let him through. Norris ignored the order for several laps before he finally obliged on the main straight two laps from the end, and Piastri crossed the line first.
It was a messy way to take a maiden victory, and Piastri acknowledged as much on the radio. But the result carried a weight beyond the internal politics as he became the first Formula 1 winner born in the 21st century.
7. Lewis Hamilton 22 years, 5 months, 3 days
2007 Canadian GP
Hamilton needed just six races to win
Grand Prix Photo
Lewis Hamilton arrived in Formula 1 in 2007 as the most hyped rookie in the sport’s history, signed to McLaren after a decade in its junior programme having won Formula Renault, Formula 3 and GP2 in successive campaigns.
He validated every word of it: five consecutive podiums to open his career made clear this was something different.
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At Montreal, starting from pole position, he held off Alonso into Turn 1 and controlled the race from the front as the Spaniard ran wide at the first corner, dropping to third.
Safety cars, including one for Kubica’s horrific accident, repeatedly bunched the field, but Hamilton, unruffled throughout, absorbed every restart cleanly and pulled clear of Heidfeld in the closing stages to win by 4.3 seconds.
It was his sixth race.
He became the youngest driver ever to lead the drivers’ championship at the time, and finished the season a single point from the title.
6. Bruce McLaren 22 years, 3 months, 12 days
1959 United States GP
McLaren won the US GP in a Cooper-Climax
Grand Prix Photo
Bruce McLaren’s name lives on in one of F1’s most accomplished teams, but before he became a constructor, he was became the youngest race winner in Formula 1 history, setting a record that would last for nearly half a century.
Raised in Auckland, New Zealand, he earned a Driver to Europe bursary that brought him to the Cooper factory team, and wasted little time making himself at home.
At the 1958 German Grand Prix, still technically an F2 entry, he finished fifth overall ahead of full F1 runners.
A year later, driving a Cooper T51 at Sebring in the United States grand Prix, the final round of the 1959 season, McLaren found himself perfectly placed as the race unfolded.
Championship leader Jack Brabham, his own team-mate, ran out of fuel on the final lap while leading, eventually pushing the car across the line on foot. McLaren, calm and measured throughout, inherited the lead and won by less than a second from Maurice Trintignant.
At 22 years and 104 days old, he became the youngest Formula 1 winner in history – a record that would stand for an extraordinary 44 years, until Alonso broke it at the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix.
5. Fernando Alonso 22 years, 26 days
2003 Hungarian GP
Alonso broke McLaren’s long-standing record
Grand Prix Photo
Fernando Alonso had announced himself as a future champion long before he arrived on the Formula 1 grid.
The Spaniard from Oviedo had torn through karting and Formula 3000, earning a Renault test role before impressing sufficiently to land a race seat with Minardi in 2001.
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By 2003 he was in a competitive Renault, and at the Hungaroring in August, he put everything together.
Starting on pole, Alonso controlled the race from the front with a composure far beyond his age. The circuit, notorious for its difficulty to overtake, suited his approach perfectly. He won from Räikkönen by over 16 seconds, the result never seriously in doubt. His race included lapping Schumacher in the Ferrari.
In doing so, he broke Bruce McLaren’s 44-year-old record as the youngest F1 winner in history, at just 22 years and 26 days old.
4. Charles Leclerc 21 years, 10 months, 16 days
2019 Belgian GP
Leclerc’s first win came on a tragic weekend
Grand Prix Photo
Charles Leclerc‘s first Formula 1 win came under the darkest of circumstances.
On the Saturday before the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix, his close friend and fellow Ferrari junior Anthoine Hubert was killed in a Formula 2 race at the same circuit. Leclerc took part in an extended post-race tribute and was visibly devastated.
That Leclerc climbed into the car on Sunday at all was a testament to his focus; that he controlled the race from pole with such authority made it remarkable.
He led throughout, managing the gap to a charging Hamilton with precision, and took victory by just over half a second.
“This one is for Anthoine,” Leclerc said on the cooldown lap. “Feels good, but difficult to enjoy on a weekend like this.”
Leclerc would go on to win the following race at Monza, too.
3. Sebastian Vettel 21 years, 2 months, 11 days
2008 Italian GP
Vettel took victory on a wet Monza
Grand Prix Photo
Sebastian Vettel had been earmarked as exceptional from the moment he became the youngest driver to score a Formula 1 point, deputising for the injured Kubica at BMW Sauber in 2007.
By the following year he was at Toro Rosso, and at Monza that September, in the wet, he produced a startling performance that surprised the entire paddock.
Qualifying on pole in treacherous conditions, Vettel converted it into a lights-to-flag victory, controlling the race with a maturity that seemed impossible for someone his age.
The Toro Rosso chassis, powered by a year-old Ferrari engine, had no business leading the Italian Grand Prix, and yet there was Vettel, pulling away at the front while others struggled in the spray.
At 21 years and 73 days, he became the youngest F1 winner, breaking the record Alonso had taken from Bruce McLaren five years earlier.
2. Kimi Antonelli 19 years, 6 months, 18 days
2026 Chinese GP
Antonelli is the latest driver to join the list
Grand Prix Photo
The latest driver to join this list, Antonelli became the most recent new winner in Formula 1 with an impressive display in the Chinese Grand Prix.
The Italian had benefitted from Mercedes team-mate George Russell‘s troubles in qualifying to secure his first pole position, becoming the youngest driver ever to grab the top spot for a grand prix.
And on Sunday, Antonelli followed through with a solid drive that culminated in his first victory in only his 25th grand prix start.
The 19-year-old controlled the race from the front, and a scare with four laps to go when he ran wide at the hairpin was the only hiccup on his way to victory.
Antonelli became Italy’s first grand prix winner since Giancarlo Fisichella stood on the top step of the podium in Malaysia in 2006, five months before the current Mercedes driver was born.
1. Max Verstappen 18 years, 7 months, 15 days
2016 Spanish GP
Verstappen’s record could stand for a long time
Grand Prix Photo
The record has stood for a decade now, and barring an extraordinary sequence of events, it may stand for a good while longer.
Max Verstappen was 18 years old when Red Bull took the decision to promote him from Toro Rosso mid-season for the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix — his very first race in the senior car.
The Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Hamilton had collided on the opening lap, gifting the lead to the two Red Bulls. The teenager coolly managed a battle with Räikkönen’s Ferrari and, with a superior strategy to team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, took the win.
Verstappen had arrived in Formula 1 just 13 months earlier as a 17-year-old, too young to hold a road driving licence in his native Netherlands.
By the time Red Bull threw him into the senior car, he had already shown enough at Toro Rosso to suggest the gamble was more calculation than recklessness.
The victory and everything that followed confirmed that it was the correct one.
Bonus entry: Troy Ruttman
Quite possibly the least familiar name to contemporary F1 audiences, Troy Ruttman could technically have been sixth on the list.
From 1950 to 1960, the Indianapolis 500 counted as a round of the Formula 1 world championship, though the vast majority of drivers who competed there had no presence elsewhere in the series.
Ruttman was a product of American open-wheel racing, starting his career in hot rods at 15 years old in California and winning championships across the AAA-sanctioned series of the west coast before arriving at Indy.
The 1952 Indianapolis 500 was Ruttman’s breakthrough. Driving for car owner J.C. Agajanian, he led 44 laps and took victory at the age of 22 years and 80 days – the youngest winner in the history of the race, a record that still stands.
