He is the star of the moment in Formula 1, the one who is making the whole world frown: Andrea Kimi Antonellithe young 19-year-old Italian driver who drives for the Mercedes team and is the current leader (the youngest ever) of the 2026 World Championship drivers’ standings. His is a story, as always when it comes to rare gems in Formula 1, which starts at an early age. At the age of seven he was already driving karts and it wasn’t long before the current Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolffhe even signed him when Kimi only had twelve years in 2019, including it in the program Mercedes Junior Team through which the Brackley team “raises” its drivers at home.
From that moment on it will be an all downhill path for Kimi Antonelli, until September 2024, when the English team announced him as an official Formula 1 driver in place of Lewis Hamilton for the 2025 season. Let’s discover in detail his journey, his records and his victories that brought him to the Olympus of this sport.
Where does Antonelli come from and why is he called Kimi
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was born in Bologna on August 25, 2006 from a family that lives on motors. Contrary to what one might think, the name “Kimi” is not a reference to the former Formula 1 driver Kimi Raikkonen rather he was chosen on the suggestion of a friend of his father’s as he simply sounded good next to Andrea and Antonelli. The father Mark he was a former racing driver and founder of the team AKM Motorsportsa structure involved in various competitions in the Gran Turismo world. It is precisely in this environment that Kimi grows up, surrounded from an early age by tracks, cars and races.
At just seven years old he got into a kart for the first time in the team founded by his father Marco and immediately demonstrated an extraordinary talent. The results arrive almost immediately: in 2015 conquer the Easykart Trophy and the Kart Grand Prix EasyKart in the 60 category, the first step in a journey that in subsequent years will lead him to dominate youth competitions. In the 2018 joins the Kart Republic team and stands out by winning the WSK Champions Cup in the Mini category, while the following year he won the WSK Euro Series and the WSK Final Cup. In the meantime he also established himself on an international level, coming close to the European title FIA Karting. The definitive consecration arrives between 2020 and 2021, when he graduates two consecutive European champions FIA Karting in the OK category, one of the most prestigious goals in world karting.
Such a talent could not go unnoticed and so in 2019 Mercedes decided to include him in their junior program with a contract 10 yearsstarting to closely follow its growth. In 2021 Antonelli debuts in Formula 4 with the team Press. Despite only competing for part of the season, he immediately managed to secure a podium in Monza and show his potential. However, it is in the 2022 who made the definitive leap in quality: he took part in several Formula 4 championships at the same time and dominated the scene, winning both the Italian championship (winning 14 victories and 13 pole positions in just 20 races) and the German one. In recent years, Antonelli chooses to use the number 12 which will accompany him until his arrival in the top category, paying homage to his all-time idol Ayrton Senna.
The following year he won the title in Formula Regional Middle Eastthen it also imposes itself in the European Regional Formulatwo categories considered fundamental on the path to Formula 1. In 2024 Mercedes decides to further accelerate his journey by making him completely skip the Formula 3 and promoting it directly in Formula 2 with Prema, a very rare choice in the panorama of preparatory categories. After an initial period of adaptation, Antonelli took his first victory at Silverstone in the Sprint Race and, two weeks later, dominated the main race in Hungary, becoming the youngest driver to win multiple races in the history of the category.
He will end his first and only season in Formula 2 in sixth place, but it matters little because a few months later comes the moment that changes his career. The August 30, 2024 debuted in an official Formula 1 session during free practice for the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. It’s a special debut that coincides with the announcement everyone was waiting for: Mercedes has chosen him as a replacement for Lewis Hamilton starting from the season 2025. Closes the 2025 championship in seventh place, conquered three podiums and demonstrates surprising maturity for a driver with his first experience in the top category.
2026 instead marks the transition from promise to absolute protagonist. After a second place in the inaugural race in Australia, Antonelli wins his first in China pole position and his first victory in Formula 1. A historic result that allows him to become the youngest poleman of the history of the category. A few weeks later it continues to break records, eventually becoming the youngest driver ever to lead the Formula 1 World Championship standings.
Kimi Antonelli’s journey in Formula 1: all the victories and records of a predestined man
The 2026 Formula 1 season is confirming the talent of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who in just a few races has already rewritten numerous records in the category. The Mercedes driver opened the year with a second place in Australia, but the turning point came immediately in China, where he took first pole position in career a 19 years old, 6 months And 17 daysbecoming the youngest poleman in history and breaking the record of Sebastian Vettel which had resisted since 2008. The next day also came the first victory in Formula 1, interrupting an Italian fast that had lasted since Malaysian GP 2006 with Giancarlo Fisichella.
From then on the rhythm becomes dominant: five consecutive victories in the first six races (China, Japan, Miami, Canada and Monaco), a streak achieved only by world champions like Jim Clark, Jack Brabham, Nigel Mansell And Lewis Hamilton.
In the last race in Monaco he dominated completely with pole position and victory, making him the youngest driver ever to achieve both results in the Principality. With this success he also becomes the youngest driver in history to win the Monaco GP 19 years 9 months and 13 dayssurpassing the previous record held by Lewis Hamiltonwho was 23 years, 4 months and 18 days old in 2008.
Antonelli is the third Italian driver to win in Monaco after Riccardo Patrese in 1982 and Jarno Trulli in 2004, and also becomes the youngest driver in the history of Formula 1 to achieve a Grand Slami.e. pole position, victory, fastest lap and race conducted entirely in the lead, breaking the previous record of Max Verstappen in 2021. Only a small elite of 28 pilots in history she managed to complete this performance.
With this result, the Italian driver also consolidates his leadership in the championship with 66 points ahead after the sixth round, a margin that represents one of the largest ever in the early stages of the season. The previous record belonged to Sebastian Vettel, who in 2011 I had 58 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
TO 19 years old And 216 daysthe Mercedes driver became the youngest World Championship leader in the history of Formula 1, taking the lead from Lewis Hamiltonwhich had arrived at 22 years old And 157 days. He is also the first driver in the history of the category to achieve a combination of pole position, victory and fastest lap in his first two career victories.
In his first full year in Formula 1 he also set the points record for a rookie, ending the season with 150 points. After Canada he also became the first rider in history to win his firsts four consecutive Grands Prixand equaled one of the longest winning streaks in the modern era of Formula 1.
No driver before Antonelli had managed to win at least two Grands Prix before the age of twenty. Antonelli, on the other hand, managed to do it even earlier, and moreover consecutively, entering an extremely small group together with Lewis Hamilton in 2007 and Charles Leclerc in 2019.
The 2026 season is also intertwined with a series of long interrupted fasts for Italian motorsport. Before Antonelli, he was the last Italian to lead the World Championship Giancarlo Fisichella In the 2005while to find an Italian permanently in command halfway through the season you have to go back to the eighties, with Elio De Angelis And Michele Alboreto. With his consecutive victories, Antonelli also brought Italy back to a statistic that had been missing for over 70 years old: two successes in a row in Formula 1, a feat that only Alberto Ascari he had managed to achieve between 1952 and 1953.
So far, in his young career in Formula 1, Antonelli has competed 30 Grand Prix, with 5 wins, 4 pole positions And 9 podiumstotalizing 306 points.
