Kimi Antonelli arrived at Mercedes in 2025 as Lewis Hamilton’s hand-picked successor and, in his second season has become the man to beat. The Bologna-born driver has rewritten Formula 1’s age records – youngest pole-sitter, youngest championship leader, youngest to score a grand chelem – and he now heads the 2026 world championship for Mercedes.
He took his maiden podium at the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix and became F1’s youngest driver to set a fastest lap, at the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix aged 18 years, 7 months and 12 days, beating Max Verstappen’s 2016 mark.
Karting
Antonelli’s racing career began on the same path as many. Aged seven, he got behind the wheel of a go-kart for the first time but just two years later, he was winning the EasyKart International Grand Final from the eleventh row on the grid.
The young Italian continued to develop in 2018, winning the finale of the WSK Champions Cup 60 Mini and also taking overall victory in the ROK Cup International Final.
In 2019, he won the WSK Super Master Series and the WSK Euro Series while also placing fifth in his first trip to the FIA World Championships.
Further podium finishes in the FIA European Championship and the Italian Championship as well as back-to-back victories in the WSK Open Cup and WSK Final Cup were ultimately enough to convince Toto Wolff of his talent, and Antonelli was signed to the Mercedes Junior Academy.
2020 was Antonelli’s final year in karts, with wins in the WSK Euro Series and the FIA European Championship, before stepping up to single seaters.
Formula 4
In 2021, Mercedes looked to throw Antonelli into the deep end, with Formula 4 campaigns in Italy and the UAE.
In the former, the 15 year old made nine race starts, secured three podium finishes and finished tenth in the drivers’ standings. In the latter, he won two races and scored five further podium finishes against stiff and largely more experienced opposition.
In 2022, Antonelli returned to dominate the Italian F4 Championship: winning 13 races as well as capturing pole position and setting the fastest lap in all but six rounds out of 20. He simultaneously dominated the ADAC F4 Championship, winning nine races, securing 12 podiums and capturing seven pole positions.
Formula Regional
In 2023, Antonelli made the step up to Formula Regional — a series which has quickly become an important stepping stone on the road to Formula 1.
Racing for Prema, Antonelli ran in both the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine and in the Middle East Championship too. He secured eight victories and captured a further 18 podium finishes overall across the two series, winning both titles.
Keen to continue his meteoric rise, Antonelli was promoted into F2 for 2024.
Formula 2
Antonelli’s first and only season in F2 didn’t exactly match up to the success he had had in other series.
Racing for an underperforming Prema squad, the Italian scored just a single point on debut in Bahrain, and he finished no higher than fourth through the first seven rounds. However, after a sprint win at Silverstone and a feature race win in Hungary — in which he qualified seventh and climbed through the field to take a dominant victory, over 13 seconds clear of the next-nearest competitor — Mercedes felt confident in announcing the Italian as George Russell’s F1 team-mate for 2025.
Formula 1
Antonelli made his highly anticipated Formula 1 debut with Mercedes in 2025, becoming one of the youngest drivers on the grid and the latest in a long line of stars nurtured through the Mercedes junior programme.
Stepping into the seat vacated by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was always going to invite scrutiny, and the Italian showed promise, particularly later in the season, although he was often not a match to team-mate George Russell.
Antonelli still managed three podiums and finished seventh in the standings, securing a new contract for 2026, again alongside Russell.
2026: title contender
Mercedes was hotly tipped to dominate the new 2026 power unit regulations – just as it had done in 2014 at the beginning of the hybrid era. The team’s 2026’s impressive form was no surprise then, but it’s been Antonelli that’s made the most of it. In China he became the youngest pole-sitter in F1 history, beating Sebastian Vettel’s 2008 record, and a day later he converted it into his maiden grand prix win. A second straight victory at Suzuka made him, at 19, the youngest driver ever to lead the world championship – a record Lewis Hamilton had held since 2007. He was also Italy’s first championship leader since Alberto Ascari in 1953.
Victories in Miami and Canada made it four wins in a row. In Miami he became the first driver to convert his first three pole positions into victories. At Monaco he became the grand prix’s youngest winner and the youngest driver to score a grand chelem: pole, victory, fastest lap and every lap led.
His season has not been flawless. A power-unit failure in Barcelona and a costly off in the closing laps at Silverstone showed his relatively inexperience, but he’s more than made up for it. A win at Spa reasserted his commanding lead whilst Russell didn’t score any points, and he produced the drive of the year at Monza. After an engine penalty sent him to the back of the grid, he came through from 19th to beat team-mate George Russell and become the first Italian to win the Italian Grand Prix since 1966. A victory at the inaugural Madrid race followed and he heads to the final eight rounds with eight wins and a 66-point lead over Russell.
Formula 1 records
Youngest pole-sitter Antonelli took pole for the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix aged 19 years and six months, beating the record Sebastian Vettel set with Toro Rosso at Monza in 2008 (21y 2m 18d) by almost two years.
Youngest world championship leader Victory at the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix moved Antonelli ahead of Russell in the standings at 19. That broke the record Lewis Hamilton set as a 22-year-old rookie in 2007, and the Italian has led the championship ever since.
Youngest driver to score a grand chelem At Monaco in 2026, Antonelli took pole, won, set fastest lap and led every lap. That made him both the youngest driver to complete a grand chelem and the youngest winner of the Monaco Grand Prix.
Youngest driver to set a fastest lap At the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix, aged 18 years, 7 months and 12 days, a rookie Antonelli took the record from Max Verstappen, who had set it at the 2016 Brazilian GP aged 19y 1m 14d.
Youngest driver to lead a grand prix Antonelli also holds the record for the youngest driver to lead a lap in a world championship grand prix, set during his rookie 2025 season (Wikipedia; ESPN).
