For Martin Brundle, the loudest verdict on Kimi Antonelli’s maiden Formula 1 title did not come from a commentary box.

It came from the two drivers sitting next to the new champion in the cool-down room in Mexico City. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton congratulated the Italian on the podium, and on Sky Sports Brundle treated that peer approval as the heaviest endorsement of a “relentless” title run.

P3 was enough

Antonelli clinched the 2026 drivers’ championship with a third-place finish at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez on Sunday, behind race winner Verstappen and Hamilton. The Mercedes driver leads the championship on 380 points, 119 clear of Verstappen in second place.

He has nine race wins in 2026. He is 20 years and 68 days old. That breaks Sebastian Vettel’s 16-year-old record as the youngest F1 world champion by three years.

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73 years, three Italians

Antonelli is also the first Italian world champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953, taking Italy’s tally to three alongside Giuseppe Farina in 1950 and Ascari again in 1952.

Earlier in the campaign he had already become the youngest polesitter in the sport’s history, and the first driver to win his opening five races of a season in succession, from China through to Monaco.

‘Overdrive or game over’ for Russell

The title has shifted the Mercedes dynamic. George Russell was in the fight through the summer, and Brundle has set out a stark reading of what comes next: either Russell goes into overdrive, or it is game over for the Englishman at the team.

Russell finished sixth in Mexico City. He has four races left to answer the question, starting at the São Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos on Sunday 8 November.

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