Andrea Kimi Antonelli · Bologna, Italia
Five wins in six races. Senna's number on a Savoy-blue helmet. The youngest championship leader Formula 1 has ever seen — and he still does his warm-up in the same order, every single time.
Due Kimi
He says it himself: the Kimi off track and the Kimi on track are different people. One folds his clothes in the same order every night. The other beat Max Verstappen to pole at Monaco.
Off Track / Andrea
Pasta at home, Bologna FC on weekends, NBA highlights before bed. Plays padel with friends, races 1:18 RC cars with his dad, and finished his high-school maturità exams four days after his first F1 podium — because his mum cared, so he did too.
On Track / Kimi
"When I drive, I am trying to do it by instinct." No overthinking, no theatrics — just a teenager dismantling the record book one Sunday at a time, with the calm of someone twice his age.
"When I'm at the racetrack, I can just fully lock in. When I drive, I am trying to do it by instinct." — Kimi Antonelli
Stagione 2026
New regulations. New car. Same number. Kimi has turned the 2026 season into a personal highlight reel — five wins on the bounce and the youngest championship lead in the sport's history.
Rd 1 · 8 Mar
Battery glitch dropped him to seventh at the start. Carved his way back for a Mercedes 1-2.
Rd 2 · 15 Mar
Youngest polesitter in F1 history — then the first Italian to win a Grand Prix in two decades.
Rd 3 · 29 Mar
Dropped to sixth at the start, won by thirteen seconds. Youngest championship leader ever, at 19.
Rd 4 · 3 May
First driver in history to convert his first three career poles into three wins. Norris never got close enough.
Rd 5 · 24 May
Wheel-to-wheel with his own teammate for the lead — and the place where his first podium came, one year before.
Rd 6 · 7 Jun
Pole, win, fastest lap, every lap led. Youngest Monaco winner ever — Hamilton's record beaten by nearly four years.
The Record Book
Every box he has ticked since March 2025, he has ticked younger than anyone before him. These aren't career stats — they're history happening in real time.
19y 216d
Youngest World Championship leader in Formula 1 history
19y 202d
Youngest polesitter, main race
5
Consecutive wins from his maiden win
19y 286d
Youngest grand chelem in history
18y 250d
Youngest polesitter in any F1 format
150
Most points in a debut season
18y 225d
Youngest to lead a lap & set fastest lap
La Storia
2006
Born 25 August in the heart of Italy's Motor Valley. His father Marco raced GT cars and ran his own team; a family friend suggested the middle name "Kimi" — no, not after Räikkönen.
2014
His very first race at Adria: pole position, victory by seven seconds, aged seven. Spotted at an ACI summer camp and signed by Minardi Management soon after.
2019
Signed to the Mercedes Junior Team. Toto Wolff had met him at eleven. Back-to-back European karting titles followed in 2020 and 2021.
2022
Italian F4 and ADAC F4 titles in the same season — a record 13 wins in Italy — then gold for Italy at the FIA Motorsport Games, racing with a fractured left wrist.
2023
Formula Regional Middle East and Formula Regional European titles back to back. Team principals voted him Driver of the Season.
2024
Skipped F3 entirely, won twice in F2, and on 31 August Mercedes confirmed the kid from Bologna would replace Lewis Hamilton. He was seventeen.
2025
Points on debut. Youngest sprint polesitter ever in Miami. First podium in Canada — then his maturità oral exams four days later, online, because his mum insisted he finish school. He did both.
2026
Five straight wins. A grand chelem at Monaco. Italy hasn't felt like this about a driver since the days they still name avenues after. And the season is barely a third done.
Il Dodici
Senna carried #12 through his Lotus years and his first championship at McLaren in 1988. Kimi grew up on DVDs of those seasons — "an incredible driver, but a great person too."
It was on his car for his very first single-seater race in F4, and on every championship-winning car since. "It worked pretty well." That's one way to put it.
He was twelve years old when Mercedes signed him. Some things are more than coincidence — even his 2025 helmet reveal opened on a radio tuned to 1200 MHz.
Le Radici
Thirty minutes from Imola. Tortellini at nonna's table. Bologna FC at the Dall'Ara, Virtus on Sundays. The fastest teenager on Earth still describes himself, first, as someone who really likes to eat pasta at home.
