Kimi Antonelli won the 2026 F1 world championship with four races to spare, but his status as title favourite for next year is already under threat.

Antonelli has won nine out of 20 races, three times more than any other driver. He could reach 400 points before anyone behind gets to 300.

Mercedes started the year in ominous fashion, winning each of the first six races. At that point, it looked as if another era of domination beckoned, but their rivals have caught up faster than anticipated.

Anthony Davidson says Max Verstappen is his early pick for 2027 world title

Since Antonelli took the chequered flag in Monaco, Mercedes have been beaten in eight out of 14 races. They are still the top-scoring constructor in that time, but Ferrari and Red Bull are both within 65 points.

Max Verstappen had to wait until round five in Canada to score his first podium, but he now has 11 in the last 16 races, including eight in a row. He has scored 251 points during this run compared to 284 for Antonelli, which has seen him surge from seventh in the championship to second.

The expectation is that Red Bull would need years to catch up to Mercedes and Ferrari with their first-ever engine, but as the FIA’s latest ADUO results confirm, they have remarkably built the best ICE.

“I reckon, as it sits right now, I would say he’d be my tip for drivers’ champion next year,” Mercedes development driver Anthony Davidson said of Verstappen on the F1 Show.

“The way it’s looked at the tail end of this season, the rapid development of, not just their car, but when you think this is season one of their brand-new power unit, it’s mightily impressive what the team has done.

“They were fighting McLaren hard through to the end of last year in the championship, and they needed to continually focus on that development of last year’s car, a completely different style of design.

Mercedes are fully expecting to face tougher competition next year despite clinching the constructors’ championship in Brazil.

After his coronation, Antonelli mapped out the threats for 2027, name-checking Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and teammate George Russell.