Kimi Antonelli has become Formula 1’s youngest-ever World Champion, completing a record-breaking campaign in only his second season. The Italian’s first title capped a year in which he set new milestones across qualifying, race wins and the championship standings.
Antonelli claimed his first Grand Prix pole at the Chinese Grand Prix, two rounds into the season. Aged 19 years, six months and 18 days, he became the sport’s youngest polesitter, surpassing Sebastian Vettel, who was 21 when he took his first pole at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. Antonelli had previously secured pole in Sprint Qualifying in Miami in 2025.
He converted that Shanghai pole into his maiden Grand Prix victory, becoming the youngest driver to win a race from pole position. The following round, in Japan, he secured another win and became the youngest driver to lead the championship, aged 19 years, seven months and four days. He then won in Miami, making him the first driver to take victory from each of his first three pole positions.
Antonelli’s run reached five consecutive wins, with the fifth coming at the Monaco Grand Prix. That victory made him the event’s youngest winner. In Monaco, he also recorded a Grand Slam: starting from pole, setting the fastest lap, leading every lap and winning. At the time of the report, only 29 drivers had achieved the feat, and Antonelli was the youngest among them.
He added a seventh win at the Italian Grand Prix, recovering from the back of the grid to triumph in front of his home crowd. Antonelli became the first Italian to win his home race since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966.
The title brought further milestones for Italy. Antonelli ended a 73-year wait for an Italian world champion and became only the third driver from the country to win the championship, after Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina in 1950 and Alberto Ascari in 1952 and 1953.
At the time he clinched the title, Antonelli was younger than Vettel, who had held the record since winning his first championship aged 23 years, four months and 11 days in 2010. Antonelli also became the first driver born in the 2000s to win the Formula 1 World Championship.
Sources: Formula 1.