Verstappen’s advice, delivered to GPblog in the aftermath of the Mexico City Grand Prix, started with a candid admission about how he got through the morning after his breakthrough championship in Abu Dhabi five years ago.
“I was probably still drunk the next day, so it was quite okay, to be honest.”
That is the state Antonelli is now left to manage. The 20-year-old Mercedes driver clinched the 2026 drivers’ title on Sunday, 1 November by finishing third in Mexico City, and in doing so became the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history. The previous mark had stood since 2010, when Sebastian Vettel took the first of his four titles at 23.
A 73-year wait for Italy
Antonelli is also the first Italian driver to win the drivers’ championship since Alberto Ascari in 1953, a drought of 73 years in a country that has given Formula 1 Ferrari, Monza and much of its mythology but no champion in three generations.
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Verstappen, who turned Antonelli’s achievement into a short tribute to his character, suggested the Italian is well placed to carry the attention.
“He looks very normal and very humble. So I don’t think a lot will change for him,” the Red Bull driver told GPblog.
How the title was won
Antonelli started the Mexico City race fourth on the grid and needed only to finish inside the top nine to settle the championship mathematically. He came home third behind Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, a podium that split two drivers with eleven world titles between them.
The race itself was Verstappen’s. The Red Bull driver finished 0.7 seconds clear of Hamilton’s Ferrari after a day broken up by a red flag following a crash involving Valtteri Bottas and a late safety-car restart.
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For Mercedes, it was the reward for a season in which Antonelli won nine of the first nineteen races and finished ahead of teammate George Russell with weeks to spare. The championship was decided with four rounds still on the calendar.
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