Monza, September 6, 2026. The Italian Grand Prix. Kimi Antonelli lines up 19th, back row, after an engine penalty. He is 20 years old, from Bologna, leading the world championship in a Mercedes, in front of his own crowd. At the end of the afternoon he takes the flag 3.857 seconds clear of George Russell, with Max Verstappen a distant third.
On the radio he could only get out "Oh my god, oh my god." Toto Wolff came on: "Our Italian hero. So deserved." It was his seventh win of the year.
You have to know what happened the first time he drove here.
Ten minutes
August 30, 2024. Free Practice 1 at Monza, his home race. He is 18, in George Russell's car, and everyone expects Mercedes to name him as Lewis Hamilton's replacement. First flying lap, a 1:23.955 on softs, and he goes straight to the top of the timesheet. By the time he starts his second flying lap he has been bumped to fourth.
Then, about ten minutes into the session, the car snaps around at Alboreto, the last corner, the one everyone still calls the Parabolica. Across the gravel and into the tire wall. 52g. Red flag. Russell's mechanics now have a car to rebuild before second practice.
Wolff defended him that day. "He's a rookie, he's very young, we are prepared to invest into his future," he said. Antonelli apologized to the team and to Russell and called it "a lesson learned for next time." The next day, Mercedes made it official anyway: the kid who had just crashed in his first ten minutes was taking Hamilton's seat. A crash like that follows you. The answer would take two years to arrive.
A racer's son
He was born in Bologna on August 25, 2006, into a family that already lived at the track. His father, Marco, raced GT cars and runs his own team, AKM Motorsport. His mother, Veronica, once worked for the Italian postal service and has helped run the team since 1997. Marco actually wanted his son to play football. The boy wanted engines.
They watched old DVDs of Ayrton Senna together. At five he was driving karts at a small circuit in Forlì. At nine he steered a Lamborghini race car while his father worked the pedals. His father had one rule: if the grades slipped, the kart stayed home.
Even his name has a story. The name Kimi came from Enrico Bertaggia, a former racing driver and a friend of his father. Marco wanted something foreign to go with Andrea.
The broken leg
Mercedes had him signed to its junior program by the time he was 13, after he turned down early interest from Ferrari. At 14 he became the youngest senior karting champion of Europe. Then, in the rain at the 2020 world championship in Portugal, he slammed into a stalled kart. His left shin and foot were broken.
For a year afterward he struggled to brake properly. He tested his first Formula 4 car while the bones were still healing. In 2022 he won a gold medal for Italy driving with a broken wrist, on painkillers to get through the race.
The cold water
On the way up he skipped Formula 3 completely and went straight into Formula 2. Halfway through 2024 he was sitting ninth. Wolff did not panic. He liked to repeat something Kimi's father says.
"A champion needs to be thrown in the cold water."
Toto Wolff, Mercedes team principal, July 2024, repeating a saying of Marco Antonelli's
"So you've got to swim, that's clear," Wolff added. At the time, Antonelli did not even have a road license. He passed his driving test six weeks before his Formula 1 debut, and he kept studying online for his final school exams through the first half of his rookie year.
That rookie year turned hard in the summer. He put it in the barrier in qualifying at Monaco and finished the race 18th and last. He locked up and took Max Verstappen out on the first lap in Austria. At Monza, his home race again, Wolff publicly called his weekend underwhelming. After Qatar, a false claim that he had let a rival through brought him death threats online. He was 19.
The answer
March 2026, Shanghai. He took pole for the Chinese Grand Prix at 19 years and 201 days, the youngest polesitter in Formula 1 history. Then he won it from pole, a Mercedes one-two, his first win in his 26th start. Only Verstappen had won a Grand Prix younger. He was the first Italian to win a race in 20 years, since Giancarlo Fisichella in Malaysia in 2006. He could barely get the words out.
"I'm speechless. I'm about to cry, to be honest."
Kimi Antonelli, Shanghai, March 2026
Two weeks later he won in Japan and became the youngest championship leader the sport has ever had. Then Miami. Then Canada. Then Monaco, on June 7, where a year earlier he had finished last. This time he took pole, led every lap and set the fastest lap: a grand slam, the youngest anyone has ever done one, beating Verstappen by almost four years. He was the youngest Monaco winner ever, too, beating Hamilton's record. It was his fifth win, and his fifth in a row. The last Italian to win five straight was Alberto Ascari, in 1952.
Then it got hard again. In Barcelona he had just passed Russell for second, with a handful of laps left, when the car broke. At Silverstone, something had got stuck in the front left, and he called the car "really undrivable." His race engineer suggested he retire it. He kept driving, chasing a single point. "I saw there was the possibility to get one point," he said. A safety car took even that away.
Two weeks later at Spa he won from pole, holding off Charles Leclerc by under two seconds. "It's great to be back on the top step after obviously a few difficult rounds," he said.
And then came Monza, from 19th on the grid, the same track where the barrier had stopped him two years before.
Number 12
He races with the number 12, for Senna. He says he wants to reach what Jannik Sinner and Valentino Rossi reached for Italy. He still cheers for Bologna's football and basketball teams, and away from the track he talks about one day studying architecture and car design.
He goes to Austin for the United States Grand Prix on October 25 with eight wins this season, 340 points and a 102-point lead over Russell, with six races left. Two years ago he was the kid who crashed in ten minutes at Monza. Now he is the one everybody is chasing.
GAMECHANGER™Reporting draws on Formula 1, The Race, Sky Sports, the Associated Press, Reuters, AFP, PA Media, RaceFans, PlanetF1, Grand Prix 247, Lights Out, Grande Prêmio, La Voce di New York, DiLei, Il Foglio, Corriere della Sera and Corriere di Bologna.
Sources (21)
Times LIVE (Reuters): Antonelli wins home Italian Grand Prix from back of the grid · Formula 1: 'Lesson learned' says Antonelli after 52g crash in maiden Mercedes FP1 · The Race: Early crash ends Antonelli's surreal F1 practice debut · Sky Sports: Mercedes confirm Andrea Kimi Antonelli as Lewis Hamilton's replacement · Grand Prix 247: Antonelli says sorry to the Mercedes team and to George · RaceFans: Antonelli's lack of F2 results not a concern for Mercedes · Grand Prix 247: Wolff on Antonelli's Italian GP: Underwhelming · PlanetF1: Kimi Antonelli subjected to death threats after Qatar Grand Prix · Qatar Tribune (AFP): Antonelli speechless with maiden win in China · FIA: Antonelli wins in Japan to become youngest championship leader in F1 history · Lights Out: 2026 Monaco Grand Prix statistics, facts and trivia · The Irish News (PA): Kimi Antonelli becomes youngest winner of Monaco Grand Prix · The Standard (AFP): Antonelli wins fifth straight in interrupted Monaco Grand Prix · Formula 1: Wolff critical of Mercedes reliability after Antonelli retirement in Barcelona · PlanetF1: Kimi Antonelli explains 'mindset' decision behind staying in British GP · Formula 1: Antonelli beats Leclerc to Belgian Grand Prix win · Grande Prêmio: Can Antonelli win the F1 title in Austin? Every result he needs · La Voce di New York: Verstappen wins Singapore, Antonelli nears F1 title · DiLei: Kimi Antonelli, chi è mamma Veronica · Il Foglio: Sta arrivando Andrea Kimi, ragazzo del futuro · ACI Sport: Marco and Andrea Kimi Antonelli's team AKM Motorsport debuts in karting