Ten things you never knew about new F1 world champion Kimi Antonelli

F1 history has been made as Kimi Antonelli is now the youngest world champion in the sport following the Mexican Grand Prix.

At just 20-years-old, the Italian has beaten the record previously set by Sebastian Vettel when he won the first of his four straight titles at the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after finishing third at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit.

Unlike Vettel's last-race finale though, Antonelli's maiden F1 championship has never looked in doubt.

He took the lead of the championship from team-mate George Russell in just the third round at the Japanese Grand Prix this year and hasn't lost it since, winning nine grands prix in the process.

As Antonelli becomes Italy's first world champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953, here are some things you may not know about F1's newest champion.

READ MORE: F1 World Champions: The full list from Farina to new king Lando Norris

10 interesting facts about Kimi Antonelli

1. That's not his name!

You may know him as Kimi but that's only his middle name! His full name is actually Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Before you ask, it's not because of 2007 F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen. It's simply a name given by a family friend due to how well it sounds with his first and surnames.

2. His No.12 car number isn't just random

Antonelli purposefully picked the No.12 because it was the number he used when winning the junior category FRECA title in 2023, carrying it over into his F1 career. The number was previously used by Felipe Nasr in 2015 and 2016 when he drove for Sauber.

3. He is incredibly superstitious

We are not talking about the usual ones like not stepping under a ladder. Antonelli's are on another level. One thing he does before every F1 session is he takes off a plastic tear-off strip from his crash helmet (drivers remove them to get rid of dirt on their visor) and gives it to his race engineer Peter 'Bono' Bonnington. He then places it, which has a hand written message from one of the team, under his keyboard.

4. Big team player

Antonelli realises he has a huge team behind him at Mercedes powering him to victory. To acknowledge this he will give a high-five to every single member of his race crew, team and car, before he heads to the grid for a race.

5. Started karts when he was just two!

Now you may think 'how did he reach the pedals?' The answer is he didn't, something he claims made him 'quite sad'. So his first karting adventure was just sitting on his father's legs, before finally reaching the pedals at the age of five.

6. Crashed after just 12 minutes in his first F1 drive

Antonelli first got behind the wheel of the Mercedes in 2024 aged 18, being handed the car for the first practice session at his home venue at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. Yet, just 12 minutes into the session, he crashed heavily at Parabolica. He walked away unharmed physically, but he was dealt a mental blow to come back from.

7. Mercedes chose him to replace Lewis Hamilton

Despite that Monza crash, Antonelli was still chosen as the driver to replace the incredibly big shoes of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton who was heading to Ferrari. After a tricky first season in 2025 where he was comprehensively beaten by George Russell, he has bounced back in style this year.

8. He has matched Hamilton and Villeneuve records

Nino Farina is the only driver to win the F1 title in his first season, but that's kind of void as it was the first ever F1 season in 1950. Fangio won the title the following year, meaning it took him just two seasons to become an F1 champion. But if we are considering 'proper' rookie drivers, only Jacques Villeneuve in 1997 and Hamilton in 2008 can, like Antonelli, claim to have won the championship in just their second season.

9. You may see him at the car wash

Well, at least if you live in Italy. Antonelli loves cleaning his car, as he sees it as a nice escapism from the F1 world. He doesn't just do it in the private compounds of the family home either, he will go out to a commercial car wash to get the job done, admitting it's what he does before heading out to every race weekend. If washing cars is not your thing, he still goes out to supermarkets, cinemas and pubs to watch sports. Man of the people.

10. He wants to be an NBA player

So for you not up to speed with your sports outside of F1, NBA is being a professional basketball player in the USA, which at 5ft 8in (1.72m) is far from ideal height to make a career out of that - even if he admits he would only want to do it for a day. Sensibly, he has Plans B and C if F1 doesn't work out including designing houses and cars!

BONUS: The curious Vettel link

Antonelli has taken the youngest F1 champion tag away from Sebastian Vettel, the strange thing about this is Antonelli was born on August 25, 2006. This was the exact same day Vettel made his F1 debut with BMW in Friday practice for the Turkish Grand Prix.

READ MORE: Isack Hadjar PUSHES fan in extraordinary Mexican GP altercation

READ MORE: F1 team punished by FIA for bizarre 'cover-up' at Mexican Grand Prix

Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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