Kimi Antonelli F1 'question marks' emerge as Mercedes star faces ultimate title test

Mercedes

Kimi Antonelli 'question marks' emerge as Mercedes star faces ultimate title test

Kimi Antonelli leads the drivers' championship by 43 points

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 1 June 2026 10:56

A key moment for Mercedes F1 driver Kimi Antonelli's title ambitions has been revealed, as the Italian teenager looks to widen the gap to team-mate George Russell.

Antonelli has claimed four grand prix victories in a row in 2026, and is currently 43 points clear of George Russell atop the drivers' championship standings.

The 19-year-old is hoping to become the youngest drivers' champion in F1 history, but may be about to face the toughest test of his F1 career so far.

Article continues under video

In 2025, the European leg of the season was dismal for the Italian teenager, picking up just three points across nine grand prix weekends on the continent.

Cemented in between some of those European races last year was the Canadian Grand Prix, where Antonelli claimed his maiden grand prix podium, but this year that track has already been and gone, meaning there are now nine consecutive race weekends in Europe to come.

These races are then followed by Baku, which is a city right on the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

If Antonelli isn't feeling the nerves of the championship battle already, then he will do over the next few weeks, as F1 visits tracks at which he made some pretty inexcusable mistakes at last year.

Will Antonelli crumble again in 2026?

Discussing the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix on the F1 Show, pundit and racer Jamie Chadwick raised concerns about Antonelli's upcoming test, saying: “The biggest question mark I have not to sort of make it all about Mercedes, but is, how is Kimi’s European season going to look this year? Because last year was bad.

“I think best finish maybe was only ninth or something in the European season. So I mean it's a different driver coming into this year but this is the start of where there could be question marks on the next few races for him. And that's what I'm excited to see, how he gets on and is this championship kind of his to lose or is it going to be anything like last year?”

Sky F1 commentator David Croft then added: “This is where it went wrong. You're right, after Canada it started to unravel and he then picked it back up again.”

Antonelli is still a long way from becoming the youngest ever drivers' champion, and the first Italian champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953.

This weekend's Monaco GP will be a real test of Antonelli's nerve, with the track better suited for experienced racers like Russell who have driven the streets of the principality time and time again.

The Antonelli that we have seen in 2026 points to a much more rounded racer who will not go through the kind of spell that he had in Europe last year, but there will undoubtedly be more pressure on the 19-year-old's shoulders as the season progresses, with more Italian fans around and more expectation that he will carry on his victory streak.

Beat Russell in Monaco, and Antonelli will really start believing it's going to be his year.

F1 Mercedes George Russell Kimi Antonelli Monaco Grand Prix Jamie Chadwick