Antonelli crowned Formula 1 world champion, first Italian in 73 years

Andrea Kimi Antonelli has become the 2026 Formula 1 world champion, finishing third in the Mexican Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The result, achieved on the Mexican circuit, secured Antonelli the world title with Mercedes, as reported by Virgilio Sport; the news currently comes from a single source, with no independent confirmation available at the time of publication.

The figure measuring the historic scale of the result concerns the time elapsed since the last Italian victory in Formula 1: an Italian returns to the top step of the world championship podium 73 years after Alberto Ascari, champion in 1953. It is a span covering the entire recent history of the championship, during which no Italian driver had managed to win the drivers’ world title.

The final championship standings show Antonelli finishing with 380 points, ahead of Verstappen, on 261, and Hamilton, third with 259 points. The gap between the new champion and his two main rivals measures the extent of the lead built up over the course of the season, a margin reflected in the final standings published at the end of the Mexican weekend.

Driver	Points
Andrea Kimi Antonelli	380
Max Verstappen	261
Lewis Hamilton	259

The Mexican Grand Prix podium, with Verstappen first and Hamilton second, did not therefore prevent Antonelli from securing the title thanks to the overall points tally accumulated over the season. The result closes a championship that gives Formula 1 a new world champion younger than the recent tradition of the category, in a context in which Mercedes returns to the top of the drivers’ world championship after recent seasons dominated by other teams.