MEXICO.- Kimi Antonelli will look for Sunday in Mexico become, at just 20 years old, the youngest champion in the history of the Formula 1 and the first Italian to win the title for more than 70 years.
It is enough for him to finish in the top nine of the Mexico City Grand Prix to mathematically secure the championship.
Antonelli will be 20 years and 68 days old on Sunday. And if he wins the title, the pilot of mercedes will snatch the record from the German Sebastian Vettelwho was 23 years and 134 days old when he won the championship in 2010.
“I’m very excited. I would love to secure the title with class, with a great result,” Antonelli said last week before the United States GP, in which he finished first.
In just his second season in Formula 1, Antonelli is on the verge of a title that Italy waiting for more than seven decades.
The previous Italian monarch in the premier category of motorsport was Alberto Ascari with a two-time championship in 1952 and 1953.
The first F1 champion was also an Italian: Giuseppe Farina in the inaugural 1950 season.
Hamilton, surrendered to Kimi
By dominating the 2026 series with nine victories, Antonelli leads the standings with 365 points.
He is followed in second place by his British teammate George Russell with 242 units.
The also British Lewis Hamiltonof Ferrari, He is third with 241 points.
The 2026 season has five dates left. With a possible maximum of 125 points to win, the chances of both Britons being champions are remote.
It would be enough for Antonelli to finish ninth to reach 367 points and be crowned automatically, although in Mexico he will seek the title in style with a victory.
With his seven titles under his belt, Hamilton knows that this race for the 2026 crown is lost and recognizes that Antonelli “deserves to be champion.”
Hamilton recalled that, in 2024, when he was still racing for Mercedes, Kimi was already set for a bright future while serving as a test pilot for the “Silver Arrows.”
“Kimi was close to the team, he followed us a lot,” recalled Hamilton, also last week. “I knew who was going to replace me.”
Antonelli could be the fifth Formula 1 driver to secure the championship in the Hermanos Rodríguez Autodrome of the Mexican capital.
The British did it before John Surtees (1964), Graham Hill (1968) and Hamilton (2017 and 2018), as well as the New Zealander Denny Hulme (1967).
The return of “Checo” Pérez
In Mexico, Max Verstappen will seek to take the podium. He is the top winner in the history of the Mexican Grand Prix with five victories and wants to finish among the best of the season.
The Dutch pilot Red Bull It is fourth in the classification with 236 units.
Another factor of great interest in this Mexican Grand Prix is the return of the venue Sergio Perez with cadillacdebutant team in Formula 1.
“Checo” Pérez took a sabbatical year in 2025 after leaving Red Bull.
His return to the Mexican track will coincidentally be his 300th Grand Prix.
“It was strange watching the Mexican Grand Prix from home, it took me a lot of work, I remembered all the emotions I was going through,” said the Mexican rider in a press conference this week.
Pérez, 36 years old, has run all 18 races this season and has not scored any points.
In the middle of the week, the popular “Checo” raised the spirits of the Mexican fans with an exhibition tour on the emblematic avenue Paseo de la Reforma of Mexico City before thousands of followers.
