Sebastian Vettel’s record as Formula 1’s youngest world champion has stood for 16 years. It can fall this Sunday, November 1, at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, where Andrea Kimi Antonelli needs no more than a ninth-place finish to be crowned champion at his first attempt.

The age gap is more than three years. Antonelli, born on August 25, 2006, will be 20 years, 2 months and 7 days old on race day. Vettel was 23 years and 134 days when he sealed his first championship with Red Bull in 2010. Lewis Hamilton, who had held the record for the two years before Vettel took it, was 23 years and 300 days when he won in 2008, according to Sportbible.

Nine wins and a 123-point cushion

Antonelli stretched his advantage last Sunday by winning the United States Grand Prix in Austin, his ninth victory of 2026. He arrived at the Circuit of The Americas 102 points clear of George Russell; 24 hours later the gap stood at 123, with Lewis Hamilton a further point behind on 241. Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris are already mathematically out.

The championship is a straight Mercedes affair, and Antonelli does not need to beat Russell in Mexico to clinch it. Ninth place would take him to 367, and only 100 points would remain after Mexico across Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

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Why ninth is the magic number

Sky Sports lays out the permutations: Antonelli clinches with a top-nine finish, or if neither Russell nor Hamilton wins the race. Even a tie on points would fall his way, because the Italian’s nine wins already outstrip the maximum of eight that Russell could reach by sweeping the four rounds that follow Mexico.

That gives the fastest driver on the grid a counter-intuitive assignment on Sunday: finish inside the top ten, and the title is his. The 71-lap race at the 4.304-kilometre circuit starts at 2pm local time.

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