Apex Scores Lite Apex Scores Lite flag
back Back
Antonelli heads list of F1's youngest champions

Kimi Antonelli has made history by becoming the youngest title winner in the 77th year of the Formula 1 World Championship.

The Italian, at 20 years and 68 days, has beaten the record of Sebastian Vettel, who was 23 years and 133 days old when he won the first of his four drivers' championships in 2010.

Antonelli, who was still a teenager until 25 August, has secured the title in his second season in the sport.

We take a look at F1's other young champions and how Antonelli's achievement compares with theirs.

Kimi Antonelli

Kimi Antonelli celebrates winning the F1 world title
Kimi Antonelli is the youngest F1 world champion and has won nine grands prix since his debut in 2025

Antonelli has already broken a number of records on the way to becoming F1's youngest champion.

In his second season, he became the youngest driver to achieve a pole position in China and the youngest to lead the championship at the next race in Japan.

In Monaco, he became the youngest driver to complete a 'grand slam' of pole position, fastest lap, leading every lap and winning the race.

All this after a rookie season in 2025 in which there were occasional highs but plenty of errors, and his final total of 150 points was less than half of the 319 accumulated by Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel holds his right index finger up in celebration after winning the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to win his first drivers' championship
Sebastian Vettel's four drivers' championships were won between 2010-13

Vettel was one of four drivers who could win the title going into the season-ending 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

He was far from the best placed, though, trailing Ferrari's Fernando Alonso by 15 points before the race and his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber by seven.

The German did what he had to do by winning the grand prix and Alonso could only finish seventh, having become stuck behind the Renault of Vitaly Petrov.

With Webber in eighth, Vettel won the championship by four points from Alonso.

It was yet another F1 record for Vettel. He had become the youngest F1 points scorer on his debut for BMW Sauber in Indianapolis in 2007, before becoming the then youngest pole sitter and race winner at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix for Toro Rosso.

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton holds aloft the Union flag as he celebrates winning the 2008 drivers' championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 championship by overtaking Timo Glock into the final corner of the Brazilian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton's debut season in 2007 almost delivered a fairytale title but he faltered in the final two races of the year.

He failed to score in China and finished seventh in Brazil, which allowed Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to pip both Hamilton and fellow McLaren driver Fernando Alonso by a single point.

Somehow the climax to the 2008 championship, also in Brazil, was even more dramatic.

Hamilton was battling for the title with Ferrari's home favourite Felipe Massa and the Briton's fourth place was going to be enough to secure the crown when a late rain shower changed everything.

Leader Massa and Hamilton were among those who changed to intermediate tyres but Toyota's Timo Glock stayed out, which lifted him up to fourth.

Hamilton, now in fifth, had Toro Rosso's Vettel right behind him and couldn't afford to lose another position. With just over two laps to go, he ran wide and Vettel was through.

Massa crossed the line to win the race with Hamilton still sixth. The Ferrari pit crew, Massa's family and the Brazilian fans celebrated but with the rain intensifying, Glock was slowing on his dry-weather tyres and Hamilton passed him into the final corner to take the title by a single point. It was heart-stopping stuff.

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso holds both arms up in the air in celebration after winning the 2005 drivers' championship
Fernando Alonso made his F1 debut in 2001 for Minardi and was Renault's reserve driver in 2002 before being promoted to the race team in 2003

Alonso established control of the 2005 championship early in the season by winning four of the first seven races and never relinquished it.

The Spaniard's speed and consistency ensured he prevailed over Raikkonen, whose McLaren-Mercedes was fast but fragile. A third place at the Brazilian Grand Prix was enough to give Alonso the title with two races to spare.

He won a second consecutive title in 2006, also for Renault, and the 45-year-old remains one of the great personalities and outstanding talents in F1.

He'll be back for another season with Aston Martin in 2027, 26 years after his debut for Minardi.

Max Verstappen

Red Bull's Max Verstappen smiles and clenches his right fist in celebration, with a Netherlands flag draped around his shoulders, after winning the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to secure his first world title
Max Verstappen remains the youngest driver to win an F1 race, having done so in his first race for Red Bull in Spain in 2016 at 18 years and 228 days

Hamilton won the title on the final lap of the 2008 season but he would lose it on the final lap in 2021 in circumstances that remain a source of huge controversy.

His rival in a thrilling and intense season-long duel was Red Bull's Max Verstappen. There were plenty of flashpoints along the way and it all came to a climax in Abu Dhabi.

Verstappen and Hamilton went into the final race of the season level on points. The Dutchman qualified on pole but Mercedes' Hamilton beat him off the line and largely controlled the race thereafter, until Williams' Nicholas Latifi crashed with five laps to go, bringing out a safety car.

Hamilton did not have enough of an advantage over second-placed Verstappen to pit for fresh tyres and maintain the lead, so stayed out. Verstappen, with nothing to lose, came in and fitted softs.

Race director Michael Masi allowed the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to go past, but not those behind the Red Bull. He allowed the race to restart for one final racing lap and Verstappen overtook Hamilton, who was a sitting duck on his old hard tyres.

Verstappen and Hamilton, in their own ways, were both stunned and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff shouted over the radio to Masi: "No, Michael, no! That was so not right!"

As happened with Vettel from 2010-13, this was the first of four consecutive titles for a Red Bull driver with Verstappen dominating the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons.

Emerson Fittipaldi

Emerson Fittipaldi celebrates on the podium after winning the 1972 Italian Grand Prix and that year's drivers' title. He is holding up a trophy and his then wife Maria Helena is waving the Brazilian flag
Emerson Fittipaldi celebrates winning the 1972 Italian Grand Prix and the first of his two world titles

Emerson Fittipaldi became the first Brazilian driver to win the F1 world title in 1972, with five wins from 12 races enough for the Lotus driver to get the better of Jackie Stewart.

Fittipaldi would secure another drivers' title for McLaren two years later but his race-winning days, in F1 at least, were over once he joined his brother's Fittipaldi team in 1976. He would have late-career success in IndyCars, winning the 1989 title and the Indy 500 twice, in 1989 and 1993.

He remained F1's youngest champion for 33 years until Alonso's first title ushered in an era where the record would change hands more regularly.

You may like

Why Kimi Antonelli didn't get given F1 world title trophy in Mexico City with special request blo...

sportbible.com 2 hours ago

Kimi Antonelli becomes youngest Formula 1 world champion at 20 years old

straitstimes.com 17 hours ago

Lewis Hamilton reveals what was said in crucial 'drivers' briefing' before Mexico GP

sportbible.com 16 hours ago

Kimi Antonelli makes F1 history with title win at Mexico City Grand Prix, Max Verstappen takes ra...

sportsmole.co.uk 16 hours ago

Antonelli becomes youngest F1 champion at 20 years old

straitstimes.com 16 hours ago

Antonelli becomes world champion as Verstappen wins in Mexico

bbc.com 17 hours ago

Mexican Formula One Grand Prix: Kimi Antonelli aims to seal title – live

theguardian.com 20 hours ago

Freshly minted champion Kimi Antonelli the perfect antidote to F1’s Piranha Club

straitstimes.com 7 hours ago

Freshly minted champion Kimi Antonelli the perfect antidote to F1’s Piranha Club

straitstimes.com 7 hours ago

Antonelli’s coronation could well be the change of guard

thehindu.com 44 minutes ago