It probably wasn’t quite how Kimi Antonelli envisaged his inaugural top-of-the-step moment. “Congratulations… Kimi Raikkonen!” bellowed long-time Formula 1 podium announcer Bob Constanduros, as the young Italian jumped onto the podium at the Shanghai International Circuit in March. Antonelli, lad with a ruthless cutting edge intertwined with a feverishly boyish charm, gestured and laughed with his team down below.

While it was a comical blunder, comparisons to his namesake Finnish driver (sadly for this section, Antonelli’s middle name was not in tribute to Raikkonen) seem somewhat appropriate for the 20-year-old Italian who, on Sunday night, became the youngest Formula 1 world champion ever. Raikkonen, Ferrari’s last champion in 2007, was known as “The Iceman”, such was his cold, unflustered demeanour. And in just his second F1 season, Antonelli’s poise and serenity have been his biggest asset amid the season of his life.

Antonelli’s third-place finish in Mexico, off the back of his brilliant lights-to-flag victory in Austin last week, rather epitomised the Italian’s near-flawless campaign – and that of his forlorn Mercedes teammate, George Russell. While Antonelli made ground at the start in Mexico City, Russell dropped back and received a 10-second penalty after spinning Isack Hadjar. It rather summed up the forlorn Briton’s year.

A season which had Russell as the clear pre-season favourite – in the quickest car on the grid – has resulted in Toto Wolff’s Italian protege, the teen he trusted with filling Lewis Hamilton’s seismic boots, dominating the 2026 campaign.

And for Antonelli, it is a history-making achievement. At 20 years and 68 days, the Italian becomes the sport’s youngest-ever champion in its 76-year history, beating Sebastian Vettel’s previous record at 23 years of age. In quite the twist of fate, Antonelli was actually born on the same day that Vettel made his F1 race weekend debut in Turkey in August 2006.

Astonishingly, Antonelli also becomes Italy’s first world champion in 73 years, when the great Alberto Ascari won for Ferrari in 1963. Alongside multiple Grand Slam champion Jannik Sinner, he is now Italian sport’s biggest star.

His maturity, a year on from being in tears at Spa-Francorchamps after a disastrous qualifying performance, has been startlingly impressive, witnessed too by journalists up and down the paddock. At the season-opener in Australia, The Independent was present as Mercedes held a media event early on the first media day morning: the ultimate indication that a team is confident in their new car.

Typically with such events, there was a preamble before the driver Q&A: coffees, biscuits, small talk. Antonelli swooped over, shook every reporter’s hand and asked how their journey down under was, such was the Middle East travel chaos that had ensued days before. It’s the small details which stick in the memory of the sport’s travelling circus: Antonelli did similar at F1 75 Live last year in London, greeting members of the press room ahead of his rookie campaign. His affability, despite the no-holds-barred environment of Formula 1, is commendable and a credit to his parents, Marco and Veronica.

It was at three years old when Kimi told Marco that he wanted to try the racing simulator his father, an amateur racer in Italy who ran a racing team in nearby San Marino, had brought home. So the story goes: Kimi controlled the wheel, Marco the pedals.

Two years later, he started karting at a mini-bike track in Galliano Park in Forli, around an hour from his home in Bologna. At eight years old, he was scouted and signed to Minardi Management; at 12 in 2018 (the same year Russell won Formula 2), he signed onto Mercedes’ young driver programme.

Now the obvious question that hovers over the Emilia Romagna region: how did Ferrari, Italy’s team based in Maranello, 30 minutes away from Antonelli’s home, miss out on Italian motorsport’s next big thing? Then-team principal Maurizio Arrivabene insisted Antonelli was “too young” to be signed to an F1 team, despite a strong urge from Massimo Rivola, then-director of Ferrari’s Driver Academy. Mercedes did not need any invitation to swoop in themselves.

For a team like Ferrari, now notorious for questionable internal decision-making, that really does now look like an all-time fumble.

Yet Ferrari’s pain has proved to be Mercedes’ gain. Antonelli stormed through the junior ranks: from 2018 to 2022, he won an astonishing 18 different karting championships. His inevitable progression up to single-seater open-cockpit cars did not slow his ascent and, when he stormed to Formula Regional titles in the Middle East and Europe in 2023, Mercedes did not waste any time. Instead of the usual progression to Formula 3, Antonelli skipped that series and went straight into Formula 2.

By now, Wolff had a decision to make. Hamilton’s exit had left the Austrian executive on the back foot in the driver market and, when it became apparent that he couldn’t persuade Max Verstappen – the generational driver he always rued missing out on – to jump ship at Red Bull, Wolff ignored seasoned veterans of the sport and plumped for his own in-house generational talent.

It wasn’t a sure-fire thing as it now seems, though. Antonelli did not waltz through his F2 season, ultimately finishing sixth and winning just two races. Most memorably, he also smashed his Mercedes into the wall at Parabolica on his F1 race weekend debut in Monza, by which time it had already been decided that Antonelli would partner Russell in 2025.

“All good Kimi,” said a stunned Wolff in the garage. “All good.”

Yet his on-the-limit driving, despite the costly repair work, was a sign of his killer instinct. And while his rookie F1 campaign ultimately had more downs than ups, this year’s generation of car – away from the ground-effect model which so suited Russell – alongside Mercedes’ newfound competitiveness at the top of the standings has given Antonelli a new lease of life.

Russell, in particular, has found his smoother driving style, breaking earlier with mid-corner speed, overheating these narrower tyres and leading to lower grip on a handful of tracks. Meanwhile, Antonelli, much like Hamilton this year, has taken to the 50/50 battery-engine combination with aplomb. While the likes of Verstappen and Lando Norris moaned about these questionable new cars, Antonelli kept his head down and worked with it. Throughout it all, he has eeked out every possible millisecond. It’s all about the margins.

And to win a championship, you need consistency. While Antonelli’s advantage in the last few weeks has been seismic, he has not waltzed to endless victories a la Max Verstappen in 2023. His standout statistic out of 19 rounds this year is not his wins (nine) but his podiums (16). Only twice has Antonelli finished outside the top five. Antonelli’s totting up of points has been relentless – and has not given Russell a sniff.

Of course, there have been standout moments: his win from pole in China (his first in Formula 1) set him on his way to five victories in a row, the last of which came at the sport’s crown jewel event in Monaco. Spa-Francorchamps in July too, perhaps the sport’s most dangerous circuit and where Antonelli toiled last year, saw the Italian absolutely dominate. Last year, the European summer season was a lesson learnt for the then-teen; 12 months on, Antonelli’s growth in stature and maturity was clear as day.

But when the petrolheads look back on the 2026 campaign, Monza will be the flagship chapter. The Italian, who took an engine penalty, started at the back of the grid in 19th but stormed to the leading contenders by lap 13. Then, he gained 15 seconds over 21 laps on leader Russell and overtook him with a handful of laps remaining. The adoring tifosi, perhaps for the first time ever, celebrated wildly for a driver not decked in Ferrari red. And for Russell, it was a knockout blow.

And when the Briton’s engine failed at the end of the one-off round in Malaysia – it should be noted that Russell has not had any luck this year, with two DNFs costing him 40 points alone – it was virtually game over. Yet the margin extending to three figures in the last few weeks has been damaging for Russell, whose confidence is shot. And after Mexico, he has dropped behind Hamilton to third in the championship.

Yet on Halloween weekend in Mexico City, there were no Sunday scaries for Antonelli. With his father watching on proudly in the garage, there will be celebrations in the paddock though, bizarrely, team Mercedes are heading back to base in Brackley on Sunday night, turning down the temptation of a Mexican tequila bar.

But the next generation is now. At the start of the last regulation set, Verstappen stamped his authority and won four in a row. The more pertinent question now looms: how many world championships will Antonelli claim? With this era lasting until 2030, it could well be a very similar story.