Everyone had long understood that he could have a bright present and future in Formula 1, full of success and satisfaction, ever since his first steps in the feeder series, where he had already impressed. But perhaps few expected Kimi Antonelli to be so dominant at just 19 years of age and in only his second year in the World Championship.
Fresh from four consecutive victories and currently leading the 2026 World Championship, the young Mercedes prodigy is experiencing a golden moment in both his season and his still very young career.
From Bologna with humility
The young driver from Bologna, in his still brief adventure in the top category of motorsport, is followed by his father, Marco Antonelli, who has accompanied his growth, passed on to him his passion for speed and motorsport and, as a former driver, gives him advice. And it was Kimi’s father, in an exclusive interview granted to the writer, who told us about some private aspects of his son, starting with how his passion for motorsport began.
“Kimi was basically born in the paddock. When he was in his mother’s belly, he would kick whenever he heard the cars starting up. Then he showed that he had this passion and, even if we may have had an influence, becoming a driver was his choice.”
So much normality
Becoming a driver was his choice, just as it is his choice to remain absolutely normal and continue, despite the explosion in popularity, to live exactly the same life as before. “Kimi is a normal guy, who goes bowling with his friends, who, if he meets people in the street, goes with them to the pub in San Marino. He is a guy who wants to be with others, have fun, and not think only about F1. He is a normal guy who knows that this is his job and treats it as such. It is as if he had to drive a bus, except he drives an F1 car. He is a guy like everyone else, who wants to spend time with his friends when he has time, to do what all boys his age do. Perhaps his strength is precisely his normality.”
