Kimi Antonelli and the 2026 season

Two years ago Kimi Antonelli crashed at the Parabolica in Monza, about ten minutes into his first ever Formula One practice session.¹ If you had told anyone watching that this kid, this boy, would win the 2026 championship, they would have looked at you and said, are you high?

He did. He sealed it in Mexico last Sunday, twenty years old, the youngest champion the sport has ever had.² The chances of Kimi reading this are about the same as that prediction coming true back then, but I want to give my thoughts on his championship anyway.

I am not an F1 fan from way back. Five or six years ago I did not follow it at all. I only picked up this magnificent sport about two years ago, right around the time Kimi joined Mercedes, and I caught up on the old seasons of Drive to Survive to understand the context. It is a very dramatic show, like every show is, but it gave me a glimpse of Russell, of where he started from and what he had been through before I ever saw him race. And I do not cherish any team. I just want fun. Cool races, excitement, action, overtakes. That is what I want from a season, and that is what this guy delivered, him and Russell both.

Russell

A lot of people would say Kimi just won it. There is truth in that, he took the lead of the championship in round three and nobody ever took it off him.³ Yes, but we got some races out of it that were really fun.

I cannot remember exactly which race it was, I think Canada, where the two of them gave us one of the finest races I have seen. Russell on pole, Kimi past him at the start, Russell back past on lap six, and then they kept swapping it, two Mercedes going at each other for the lead. Russell's car gave up on him halfway through and Kimi won, but the race was the two of them.⁴ Some really cool overtakes. Thank you so much Russell for that. I really appreciate it. I just hope he enjoyed it, and that the loss did not take the fun out of it for him.

Because I believe there is something good in Russell not winning. I am not trying to say he is not good now. He won three races this year and for most of the season he was the only one anywhere near Kimi.⁵ I am trying to say the guy will discover himself. Go back to 2024, when he and Hamilton were in the same car. Hamilton, a legendary driver, and Russell kept up with him and even overtook him in points.⁶ It is hard to make comparisons, but Russell is a really good driver, and I feel like that gets missed. I believe he will win a championship. I think he is a worthy champion, I think he can win it, and I think he will get his redemption. I really believe in the guy.

What Kimi understood

I think what Kimi really understood is the low pressure. His rookie year was rough, Russell beat him almost every weekend, and I think he got really well into the fun of it, the essence of motorsport, instead of the pressure around it. You can see it in his eyes. It is not something you can say or talk about. You can see it when he is racing, when he is fighting for wins. He is fighting really well, and he is enjoying it.

And I have never seen a champion so well embraced. Every team's fans, everywhere, and nowhere more than at Monza.

Imagine your home race. You start nineteenth, P19, because the team changed engine parts and took a thirty place grid penalty.⁷ At the place where you crashed in practice two years ago. In front of your home crowd. I watched him come through that field, and when he caught the Mercedes and the Red Bull at the front he and Russell did their thing again, back and forth so many times the team got on the radio to tell Russell to stop the yo-yo racing. A virtual safety car, fresh tyres for Kimi, and after the restart he went past Russell and won from nineteenth. And the thing I will not forget is the Ferrari fans. Ferrari had a terrible day at home, and the tifosi were on their feet for a Mercedes driver, chanting his name, in Monza.⁸ Ferrari fans forgetting about Ferrari is something that is just impossible, and I watched it happen.

What I saw that day was a championship ride, a championship worthy race. I do not know how to say it better than that. If he had not gone on to win the title this year, that drive would still be one of the best things I have watched. I think it was on the level of Verstappen in Brazil in 2024, from seventeenth in the rain. They sealed the championship with that race, as far as I am concerned.

The rest of the grid

Hadjar is one of the underdogs of this season for me. First year in the big Red Bull, next to Verstappen, in a car that was nowhere at the start, and he still got a podium in Monaco. Then he broke his wrist over the summer break, missed three races, came back at Baku and finished third. What he did in so many of the races he was in is amazing, a very worthy performance, and I cannot wait to see what he pulls off next. One of the coolest racers on the grid.

Lindblad, legendary first season. The only real rookie this year, points on his debut, Q3 so many times in that Racing Bulls. I have nothing to add, I am just very proud of him.

Liam Lawson is the other underdog. I used to not like him. It was the press image, the social image, the way he came across, and I think the Netflix show and the whole story of being promoted and then dropped after two races did him dirty. It is a bad way to depict a person. But I really love the guy now. Fifth at Monaco from tenth on the grid, and he stepped into the Red Bull for three races when Hadjar was hurt. He is a really good driver.

I feel sad for Esteban Ocon. I do not know what happened to him, honestly. Seven points all year in the Haas, and now he is leaving the team at the end of the season with nowhere confirmed to go.

Gasly, legendary driver. That Saturday at Monza, man. Pole position, his first ever, the first for Alpine in seventeen years, in the same week he had just lost his Monaco podium on appeal.⁹ What a freaking qualification. And it was Monza again, where he won in 2020.

Bortoleto and Bearman, both good drivers. Bearman got Haas its first points of the year and a fifth place in China. Bortoleto has a couple of eighths in the first Audi. I wish they get much more chance on bigger teams in the upcoming seasons. These guys really deserve it.

Leclerc is probably the driver I have watched the most content about, podcasts, his story. I really love the guy. He won Silverstone this year, he is fifth in the championship, and he is still the one I want to see more of. To me he is the uncrowned prince. He has something to figure out, and he has to figure it out before he is champion worthy. There is a little barrier between the championship and Charles, and every race he just needs to figure it out.

Norris, I am very proud of him, because I feel like he matured a ton this year. He came into it as the champion, after that three way fight with Verstappen and Piastri that went to the last race in Abu Dhabi and was decided by two points, and this year the McLaren was not the car any more. He still won Hungary and Zandvoort. Piastri, I do not know what happened. Seven wins last year, none this year.¹⁰ I had really high hopes for him, I think everyone did, especially after last year. But something clicked, something just changed in Piastri, and I do not know what it is. I see less of him.

And Red Bull. I do not know what happens at Red Bull at the end of every season, they just wake up. Nothing for months, and then Verstappen wins in Malaysia, wins Singapore from pole, wins Mexico, and climbs to second in the championship with four races left.¹¹ I am also excited about them. I just hope they keep it up for next year.

What I worry about, and what I am grateful for

If F1 keeps getting exciting like this, we just keep getting new drivers. That part takes care of itself. I am more worried about the technology than the people. This was the year of the new rules, and the cars changed a lot.¹² I am more worried about F1 becoming the technology behind the thing, about what the teams build becoming more artificial and more legally restricted, than I am about the drivers, because I think the drivers just get better. So many people said there would be no more Schumacher. And there is Hamilton. And then we got Verstappen. I have high hopes for the rookies.

Everyone on this grid is just so good. This is probably one of the biggest grids since the early 2010s.

I am very grateful to have watched another great season of Formula One. There are times where it is very boring, but that is F1, and there are times where it is cool. Legendary season. Not as good as last year, with the three title fights going to the final race, that was another big one. But we got something really different, something really exciting.

I had planned to go watch my first race in person this season and sadly I did not manage it in time. I think I will do that next year. I cannot wait. There are still a few races left this year, and I liked a lot of them already, Malaysia, Singapore, all of those were good. And I hope next year I see a very close fight: Kimi, Russell, Hadjar, Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc. We have a lot on this freaking grid.