Kimi Antonelli has become Mercedes’ fourth Formula 1 world champion after Juan Manuel Fangio, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Antonelli, 20, sealed the world title in Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix, smashing Sebastian Vettel’s youngest champion record by three years.

Excluding the championship’s early years, Antonelli is just the third F1 driver ever to win the title within two years of his debut after Jacques Villeneuve (1997) and Hamilton (2008).

Lewis Hamilton always backed Kimi Antonelli to replace him at Mercedes

Antonelli drove in an official F1 weekend for the first time at the Italian Grand Prix in 2024, replacing future teammate George Russell in FP1.

The Italian infamously had a heavy crash just 10 minutes into the session, but Mercedes confirmed just 24 hours later that he would succeed the Ferrari-bound Hamilton in 2025.

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He's the youngest ever F1 champion!

Toto Wolff was taking perhaps the biggest risk of his tenure as team principal. He was replacing the most successful F1 driver ever with the third-youngest.

Drivers like Carlos Sainz, a race winner who had lost his Ferrari seat to Hamilton, and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso were on the market.

But when asked about Antonelli in the 2024 Monza press conference, Hamilton said: “I mean, I said a long time ago that I think that’s who the team should choose moving forwards. And time will tell what they end up deciding to do.

“He’s one of those young, super-talented kids that’s come through. I mean, he’s a young adult now. But, yeah, he’s only 18. So I think it’d be good for people just to remember he is just turning 18, and he’s got a bright future ahead of him. And yeah, I’m really excited to see and watch his progress.”

Hamilton urged Mercedes to take a chance on youth, just as McLaren did in 2007 when Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya moved on. He was seeing a generational shift across the grid, with Isack Hadjar, Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto also stepping up in 2025.

“We’ve been watching him through the different formulas and naturally he’s a Mercedes driver,” Hamilton explained. “I just think we are starting to see a lot younger drivers coming through and I think we’re just in that time, where there’s only 20 seats and I think it’s time.

“We’re starting to see this new wave come through, in terms of taking on another driver that’s had many, many years of experience as opposed to giving an opportunity to a youngster. That’s what McLaren did for me and it worked out well.

“In my opinion, it’s just an opportunity for him to grow. He would get to work with the best in class, learn from people that I’ve worked with for so many, many years.

“But it is a lot of weight on someone’s shoulders. But as I said, it’s a great environment that I think they would just be able to nurture him and carry him through it.”

Wolff and Hamilton were clearly aligned, because Antonelli was offered the Mercedes seat almost immediately during the 2024 off-season.

Antonelli’s underwhelming rookie season saw many question Wolff’s gamble, with some speculation that he could be loaned out to a Mercedes customer like Alpine for 2026.

But Wolff stood by him and he was rewarded in spectacular fashion as Antonelli produced one of the most impressive seasons in F1 history, confirming he was a generational talent.

Hamilton knew all along that the Italian would be a worthy successor.