Lewis Hamilton did not escape the FIA’s reasoning after Sunday’s first-lap tangle with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in Mexico City.

The stewards gave Leclerc a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage at Turn 4 on the opening lap, but halved what would normally be a ten-second sanction. The reason, the stewards wrote, was that Hamilton’s own excursion on the inside line fed directly into the incident.

“In mitigation is the fact that car 44 was also off track on the inside of car 16 and this occurred early in the first lap,” the stewards’ decision read.

Hamilton did not take it quietly. Over team radio he told Ferrari the officials were “basically handing Charles this win.”

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The clash fed a bigger argument inside Ferrari. Team principal Fred Vasseur told reporters the collision came down to “a matter of respect,” and he was blunt about the cost: “The result is that we had a win on the table. We were one-two in Mexico,” he said after the race. Verstappen won from Hamilton and Antonelli, with Leclerc fourth after serving the penalty.

Antonelli chooses sentiment over tradition

At the other end of the paddock, Mercedes had a different story to manage. Kimi Antonelli, who sealed the drivers’ title with third place at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, told reporters he will not run number one next season.

The 20-year-old Italian, Formula 1’s youngest world champion, said he will keep car number 12 in 2027.

“I’ll stay with number 12 because, obviously, it’s a very special number for me.”

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“To be honest, I’m very superstitious, and number one has never been a good number for me. Whenever I [used] it, it went extremely badly.”

The number carries weight for Antonelli beyond his own history. The last F1 driver to win a world championship running 12 was Ayrton Senna, with McLaren in 1988. Antonelli has repeatedly named the Brazilian as his idol, and said he will race a special Senna-themed helmet at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

First Italian champion in 73 years

Antonelli’s championship ends one of Italy’s longest waits in the sport. He is the first Italian driver to be crowned Formula 1 world champion in 73 years, according to Reuters, since Alberto Ascari’s run of titles in the early 1950s.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff framed his young driver’s title in character terms as much as sporting ones. “He represents the modern Formula One driver because of humility, integrity, loyalty, and respect, not only talent,” Wolff told Reuters.

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The next race is at Interlagos for the Brazilian Grand Prix, where Antonelli will carry the Senna tribute helmet into the circuit named after Senna’s compatriot and rival.

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