Kimi Antonelli spent part of his week in Brazil at the Senna family’s estate. The newly crowned Formula 1 champion sat in Ayrton Senna’s 1986 Lotus 98T and visited the triple world champion’s grave before racing at Interlagos. He left with a nickname: the Senna family had taken to calling him “Senninha”, little Senna.
Toto Wolff addressed the comparison at Interlagos and refused to let the label harden into anything heavier, speaking to reporters in quotes distributed by Reuters.
“Comparing Kimi to Senna, I was always not very keen in having this comparison. Because, you know, Senna is a giant of the sport,” Wolff said.
The Austrian also described the Senna family’s welcome as “sweet” and said relatives had told him Antonelli was the first outsider they had thought of as a second Senninha. He kept the framing cautious.
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“Maybe at that stage he’s a Senninha and not a Senna yet. So let the Senninha develop, let him become a Senna.”
Why ‘Senninha’ carries weight in Brazil
The word is a Brazilian Portuguese diminutive. The “-inha” ending softens Senna’s surname into “little Senna” and it already has a life of its own in Brazil: Senninha is also a cartoon character the driver himself helped create, a boy kart racer whose comic launched before Senna’s death at Imola in 1994. For a Brazilian household to use the name for a foreign driver is unusual.
Antonelli wore a Senna-inspired helmet for the Interlagos weekend, which Grande Prêmio described as a special tribute design.
A spin at the Senna S
Antonelli clinched the 2026 drivers’ championship a week earlier in Mexico City. A third-place finish on 1 November made him the youngest world champion in F1 history, at 20 years and 68 days, breaking Sebastian Vettel’s 2010 record, Mercedes confirmed in its race report.
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The São Paulo weekend was less serene. In a wet race on Sunday, 8 November, Antonelli briefly led after passing Lando Norris, spun at the Senna S (the Turn 1 left-right that bears the Brazilian’s name) and recovered to fifth. Norris won for McLaren and George Russell was fourth, enough for Mercedes to seal the 2026 constructors’ championship with three rounds to spare. It is the team’s ninth, drawing them level with Williams in the all-time list.
Wolff turned down the volume on his own share of that record as well, deflecting comparisons with Frank Williams and Ron Dennis. He aimed the same instinct at his driver.
The next race on the calendar is the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday, 21 November.
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