Kimi Antonelli has made his decision to continue racing with '12' in Formula 1 next season and will not take over '1' from McLaren's Lando Norris.”

Antonelli became the youngest-ever world champion at the Mexico City Grand Prix, where he finished third behind Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

Antonelli is following the same approach as Hamilton. For next season, the Mercedes driver could have chosen to race with '1' as his number, but he will stick with '12' instead. Hamilton also kept '44' despite winning multiple world championships, while Verstappen and Norris both chose to race with '1'.

Antonelli commented after the race: "I think I'll stay with number 12. I'll stay with number 12 because, obviously, it's a very special number for me, but also it's a way for me to stay grounded, to stay humble, and I feel like by keeping number 12 it allows me to have a new point where to start and build on everything again and try to improve.

"And also, to be honest, I'm very superstitious, and number one has never been a good number for me. Whenever I put it, it went extremely badly. So one more reason to stay with number 12. But, yeah, I will stay with number 12."

Photo: Race Pictures

Verstappen and Hamilton praise Antonelli

Verstappen explained he is proud of the young Italian driver. He said: "Well, I think to achieve this in your second year in Formula 1 is always very impressive. Because, of course, at his age as well, to be so solid, not make big mistakes, and, of course, also beat your experienced teammate, he's just driven incredible.