Kimi Antonelli became the youngest world champion in Formula One history on Sunday after finishing third for Mercedes at the Mexican Grand Prix. At 20 years and 68 days old, the Italian driver broke the age record set by Lewis Hamilton in 2008 by almost four years.
Antonelli clinched the Drivers' Championship with four races to spare after winning nine Grands Prix this season. Rivals Max Verstappen and Hamilton lifted Antonelli onto their shoulders after the race, where the new champion also celebrated with his father Marco, mother Veronica and sister Maggie.
The youngster began the campaign as Mercedes' number two driver behind team-mate George Russell, who had been tipped for a title challenge. Antonelli joined Mercedes last year to replace Hamilton, having passed his road driving test only two months before stepping into the British driver's seat.
Pocket money and an £8.3m Mercedes salary
Antonelli's title bonuses have lifted his earnings for the year from a £2.5 million base salary to about £8.3 million. Despite that fortune, the Bologna native still lives on an allowance controlled by his parents.
"He has a monthly (pocket money) budget to stick to," his mother Veronica told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "If he goes on holiday, he knows he can't go over it. It won't always be like this, but he's still young. Kimi is fine with it; his only thought is about cars; in fact, sometimes he says he'd like to buy one."
His father Marco was a racing driver himself and now owns the AKM Motorsport team. Veronica said the family's financial sacrifices shaped her son's work ethic.
"I think our example was important for him. When Marco was racing, he had to take out a bank loan to afford his helmet, his racing suit, and his travels," she said. "We taught him that nothing in life can be taken for granted and that you have to earn things. Now he's a Formula 1 driver, but I still see him as my son."
From a kart at age one to the Mercedes academy
Antonelli sat in a kart for the first time at one year old, used racing simulators by three, began competing at seven and drove a Lamborghini at 10. At age seven, he sneaked into the German Grand Prix paddock hidden inside a tyre pushed by his father, and as a child he was also pictured in 2016 and alongside former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas.
"I took him in a kart for the first time when he was one year old. I held him in my arms, pressing the accelerator and brake pedals, while he had his little hands on the steering wheel," Marco recalled. "It didn't take him long to show me his talent: in 2009, I brought a simulator home for the Christmas holidays, and he was able to hold perfect lines. Then, at ten years old, he took a few laps in a Lamborghini Super Trofeo. On that occasion, he controlled the car amazingly well."
Marco initially wanted his son to play football, though Kimi was drawn to motorsport while idolising both footballer Lionel Messi and Brazilian racing champion Ayrton Senna, whose DVDs he watched as a boy. Mercedes signed Antonelli at age 12, beating Ferrari to his signature because he was officially too young for the Italian team's academy scheme.
"When I was little, before everything even started, he didn't want me to race because the sport can be very cruel at times, and especially financially. It's a very difficult sport when you don't have the right support," Antonelli said. "I'd always be very grateful to Mercedes because they were the ones gambling on me when I was very little."
Life inside the Mercedes garage and San Marino rituals
Antonelli learned English during race weekends and added German when he joined Mercedes. Team principal Toto Wolff has hailed him as a modern "role model", even as the 20-year-old continues to prank Mercedes staff by pushing cream pies into their faces.
"Kimi is a character who needs people around him," a Mercedes friend told Daily Mail Sport. "He drapes himself across whichever colleague is close by. He is very close to his race engineer Bono (Peter Bonnington). He has one of those personalities that draws people in. He's simpatico and has a photographic memory for people's names. He enjoys spending time in the garage and with the car."
The friend noted that Antonelli treats the car like a living being by touching and talking to it, adding: "But he is also a people's person and has brought a real sense of fun and mischief to the team. It's impish fun."
Away from the circuit in San Marino, Antonelli unwinds by hand-washing his personal Mercedes-AMG GT63, a road car he crashed last year. "It is a meditation for him," a source told Daily Mail Sport's Jonathan McEvoy. "He does that when he can on a Monday after a race."
"I don't think he's at risk of becoming the kind of flamboyant young superstar," Wolff told Reuters. "He goes to the car wash on the Monday morning. He loves the car that he has and people are very surprised to find him there, hoovering his car. But he has his good group of friends around and people that care. And he's fine with that."
Split with girlfriend Eliska Babickova before the season
Antonelli's title campaign began days after his influencer girlfriend of almost three years, former karter Eliska Babickova, ended their relationship. Babickova posted a video on Instagram under the handle @babickovaeli explaining that their goals had diverged and denying rumours of infidelity.
"We were just not really sure at what point the relationship was ourselves," Babickova said. "I've seen so much speculation and fake narratives and news, and whatever. That's not right. I want to set it right and I want to set the record straight, just so everyone knows and there doesn't need to be any more false, disgusting narratives."
"I was the one to end the relationship because I felt that we no longer aligned in our personal lives and in what we wanted for our future. Also, our values towards the end of the relationship were very different. That's basically it. That's why the relationship ended. There's no massive drama. Nothing like this. No other men, no other women were involved. There was no cheating. And I think it is super wrong for anyone to assume that because it is very misrepresentative of who me and Kimi are as people."
Rapid development from a 160mph practice crash to Monza victory
The Italian has rebounded from early mistakes on track, having crashed at 160mph within 10 minutes of his first Formula One practice session in 2024. Earlier this season, Verstappen mocked him after a track violation cost Antonelli points in the Miami Grand Prix Sprint Race, yet Antonelli later won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza from 19th on the grid.
"It's still surprising and amazing to see how quickly he develops," Wolff said after the Monza win. "For me, it's like an AI agent that continuously self-improves and learns; that's the speed."
"You worried a bit that he would struggle to take all that in," added Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes' trackside engineering director. "There is a bit where the brain is still developing at that age, and it's a lot to try and teach people. It's a little bit like trying to do a university degree with a school kid. You're trying to pile a load of information into them. When he does make a mistake, it really registers in his subconscious, and he moves on from it."
Antonelli's rapid rise now sets the stage for the coming seasons against Hamilton, who is chasing a record eighth Drivers' Championship, and Verstappen, who is seeking to add to his four world titles.
