‘Ultimate underdog’ says Rosberg but Antonelli downplays title chances
Kimi Antonelli won the 2026 Chinese GP and became the second world championship race winner in the process.
Kimi Antonelli may be the “ultimate underdog” according to Nico Rosberg, as the Italian moves to downplay his title chances.
Three race weekends into the F1 2026 season, 19-year-old Antonelli is leading the Drivers’ Championship on 72 points, nine ahead of his Mercedes teammate George Russell.
Kimi Antonelli downplays F1 2026 title chances
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Although he started his season with a huge crash in FP3 at the Australian Grand Prix, losing it on the kerbs in his qualifying simulation, he has barely put a wheel wrong since.
Going on to finish runner-up to Russell that weekend, Antonelli fired back in China where he became the sport’s youngest pole-sitter before fighting back from a tardy start to win the grand prix.
He made it two-from-two in Japan to snatch the lead of the standings away from Russell.
His performances have made him the youngest-ever leader of the world championship, at just 19 years, seven months, and 4 days.
On the back of a pre-season, when talk centred on Russell as title favourite, the Brit having been with Mercedes since 2022, Antonelli has emerged as the potential fairytale story.
One that 2016 Mercedes world champion Rosberg appreciates.
F1 2026: The season’s winners and losers
The results of the F1 2026 championship
The F1 2026 Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings
“What an amazing story we have,” he told Bloomberg.
“19-year-old Kimi Antonelli, the ultimate underdog, is leading this world championship three races in.
“That’s wonderful.
“He has so many fans. Even at the conference here in San Francisco. Loads of Mercedes and Kimi Antonelli fans as I was walking up on stage, so it’s nice to see.”
Former Ferrari F1 race winner Eddie Irvine agrees with Rosberg.
“Kimi is a real title contender, but it’s still too early to make any predictions about how the season will end,” Irvine told Gazzetta dello Sport.
Asked if he expects incidents between Antonelli and Russell as their battle intensifies, Irvine replied: “I’m 100 per cent sure of it.
“The stakes are too high, and the drivers have similar performances. Therefore, Toto Wolff can’t intervene with team orders.
“He experienced very tense situations when Lewis Hamilton battled with Nico Rosberg, and then with Max Verstappen. On the latter occasion, there was a bad accident at Silverstone.”
But can Antonelli actually do it?
F1 2026 marks the Italian’s second season in the sport. Last year he was outpaced by Russell, with the Briton clinching two grand prix wins and scoring double Antonelli’s points.
This year, though, the 19-year-old appears to have found his form with the new generation cars. But even he is downplaying his chances.
“Big step. Experience does a lot,” he said of his progress from last year to this year.
“Obviously, last year I’ve gone through a lot, and it taught me massively more than what I anticipated, and for sure it’s helping so far this year.
“Of course, there’s still a lot of work to do, but I definitely feel much more in control of the situation.
“I’m not thinking too much about the championship,” he added.
“Of course it’s great, but it’s still a long way to go and need to keep raising the bar because, you know, George is very quick and for sure he’s going to be back at his usual level, and also competitors eventually they will get closer.
“I think we need to keep our head down and keep raising the bar.”
As for his team principal, Toto Wolff says Mercedes is now seeing the success that he also believed would come from Antonelli. Although two wins in two races, that was unexpected.
“I think when we decided to give him the seat one and a half years ago, we hoped for this trajectory, with the ups and downs that you expect from a young driver aged 18 in the first year,” reflected Wolff.
“Eventually, second year, the success would materialise, and I think this is happening.
“Now, could we have predicted two wins out of three races for Kimi? No.
“But in Japan, he was quick when it mattered, the luck was on his side, and also I think all of that contributed for him to have this consecutive victory.”
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