Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli is now on the cusp of winning the 2026 F1 title, raising the question of whether he will use the number one plate or retain #12 in 2027.

Antonelli only has to outscore his Mercedes teammate and 2026 F1 title rival George Russell by two points in the Mexico City Grand Prix this Sunday to win the driver’s championship for the first time. The Italian currently leads Russell by 123 points and needs to lead him by 125.

Winning the title at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez this week would also see Antonelli become the youngest-ever F1 champion at 20 years, two months and eight days old. Ferrari rival Lewis Hamilton can also deny Antonelli, but the Briton heads to Mexico 124 points shy.

Would Mercedes have won the championship without Kimi Antonelli?

Andrea Kimi Antonelli will not use the number 1 plate as the reigning F1 champion in 2027

It is now really a question of when rather than whether Antonelli will win the 2026 title, and in doing so also become only the third Italian after Giuseppe Farina and Alberto Ascari to lift the crown. Farina won the first-ever F1 title in 1950, and Ascari sealed his in 1952 and 1953.

Becoming the 2026 F1 champion would also allow Antonelli to switch from his current race number 12 to the #1 plate in 2027. Since permanent race numbers were introduced in 2014, only Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel used the #1 plate as the champion.

Hamilton always wanted to retain his permanent racer number 44 after winning his six titles for Mercedes between 2014 and 2020. And Antonelli now intends to follow in the footsteps of the man he replaced at Mercedes, as he wants to use number 12 instead of the #1 plate.

“First I have to do my job in Mexico,” Antonelli told Blick. “But I think that once I’ve finished [winning the title], I’ll still compete with number 12.”

Antonelli chose #12 as his permanent race number upon his Formula 1 debut for Mercedes in 2025 in recognition of his idol, Ayrton Senna. The Brazilian used #12 from 1985 to 1988, firstly while with Lotus and then when he moved to McLaren and won his first title in 1988.

Senna switched to the #1 plate for the 1989 season as the defending champion, when the number was automatically assigned to the reigning drivers’ champion. It was only after the permanent driver numbers were introduced in 2014 that the reigning champion could elect not to use the #1 plate and instead retain their personal number like Hamilton decided to.

Hamilton built his entire brand around using the number 44 in F1, whereas Antonelli wants to continue to honour his idol Senna by retaining the #12 plate instead of switching to the #1 plate as the reigning champion in 2027. Next year will also see Antonelli have to try and defend a title for the first time in his fledgling single-seater career, should he win the title.

Antonelli has never had to defend a title to date as he always left the series in which he had won a title for a higher level on the junior single-seater ladder. After winning the Italian and ADAC F4 titles in 2022, Antonelli won the 2023 Formula Regional Middle East and European titles before then debuting in Formula 2 in 2024 (and finishing sixth) and Formula 1 in 2025.