Kimi Antonelli makes F1 number one decision as 2026 title win approaches

Kimi Antonelli will buck tradition, or at least the tradition set by the last two Formula 1 world champions, and stick with his ’12’ race number if he wins this year’s world title.

The Mercedes driver only needs a ninth-placed finish at the Mexican Grand Prix to wrap up the title, irrespective of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton’s finishing positions.

Kimi Antonelli confirms his F1 race number plans for 2027

Antonelli is, barring a disaster at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, just days away from winning the F1 2026 world championship.

The Italian, who has won nine Grands Prix, has scored 365 points across 18 race weekends and needs just two points to win the title.

But with that comes one of the biggest decisions he will make in the sport: 12 or 1?

Formula 1 introduced permanent numbers in 2014, but the winner of the World Championship can choose to race with the number ‘1’ on his car.

Antonelli says he’ll continue with his ’12’.

“I have to do my job in Mexico first!” he told Blick when asked about his race number for next season.

“But I think that when I reach the finish line, I’ll continue to compete with the number 12.”

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There have four world champions since Formula 1 introduced permanent numbers; Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.

But while Hamilton opted to stick with his number ’44’, both Verstappen and Norris ran the number ‘1’.

Hamilton explained his decision, saying: “I don’t consider myself the champion that year; I consider myself the one that’s fighting for a championship.”

Rosberg never had to make the choice as he retired from Formula 1 just days after winning the title.

Verstappen had a different mindset to Hamilton.

“Yeah I will run it,” he said. “How many times can you do that? I don’t know, maybe it’s the only time I can in my life. It’s the best number out there. So I will definitely put it on the car.”

After his four years with the number ‘1’, he was dethroned by Norris.

The Briton told Sky F1: “It’s tradition. It’s there for a reason. It’s there because you can go and try grab it and you can work hard to try and get it.

“All of us as a team that gets to have a role in McLaren, or my car, will get to wear that with pride. It’s all my mechanics, my engineers, everyone that’s part of McLaren gets to have that acknowledgement too.

“So it’s not for me, it’s for them as well. It’s their pride, knowing that they put a lot of work and effort into everything, that they can also go ‘we’re number one’. It’s not as cool when you say ‘we are number four’ so they will be even happier than I am!”

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