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Antonelli heads list of F1's youngest champions

Q: What is this sports story about?

As Kimi Antonelli becomes F1's youngest world champion, we look at how his achievement compares with some of the drivers who previously held the record.

Q: Who published this story?

This story was published by BBC Sport on November 1, 2026 and curated on Africa Front.

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November 1, 2026

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Antonelli heads list of F1's youngest champions

Published1 November 2026

Kimi Antonelli has made history by becoming the youngest title winner in the 77th year of the Formula 1 World Championship.

The Italian, at 20 years and 68 days, has beaten the record of Sebastian Vettel, who was 23 years and 134 days old when he won the first of his four drivers' championships in 2010.

Antonelli, who was still a teenager until 25 August, has secured the title in his second season in the sport.

We take a look at F1's other young champions and how Antonelli's achievement compares with theirs.

Kimi Antonelli

First championship: 2026

Age: 20 years and 68 days

Stage of his F1 career when title was won: Second full season

F1 debut: 2025 Australian Grand Prix (aged 18)

Antonelli has already broken a number of records on the way to becoming F1's youngest champion.

In his second season, he became the youngest driver to achieve a pole position in China and the youngest to lead the championship at the next race in Japan.

In Monaco, he became the youngest driver to complete a 'grand slam' of pole position, fastest lap, leading every lap and winning the race.

All this after a rookie season in 2025 in which there were occasional highs but plenty of errors, and his final total of 150 points was less than half of the 319 accumulated by Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

Sebastian Vettel

First championship: 2010

Age: 23 years and 134 days

Stage of his F1 career when title was won: Third full season

F1 debut: 2007 US Grand Prix (aged 19)

Vettel was one of four drivers who could win the title going into the season-ending 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

He was far from the best placed, though, trailing Ferrari's Fernando Alonso by 15 points before the race and his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber by seven.

The German did what he had to do by winning the grand prix and Alonso could only finish seventh, having become stuck behind the Renault of Vitaly Petrov.

With Webber in eighth, Vettel won the championship by four points from Alonso.

It was yet another F1 record for Vettel. He had become the youngest F1 points scorer on his debut for BMW Sauber in Indianapolis in 2007, before becoming the then youngest pole sitter and race winner at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix for Toro Rosso.

Lewis Hamilton

First championship: 2008

Age: 23 years and 300 days

Stage of his F1 career when title was won: Second full season

F1 debut: 2007 Australian Grand Prix (aged 22)

Lewis Hamilton's debut season in 2007 almost delivered a fairytale title but he faltered in the final two races of the year.

He failed to score in China and finished seventh in Brazil, which allowed Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to pip both Hamilton and fellow McLaren driver Fernando Alonso by a single point.

Somehow the climax to the 2008 championship, also in Brazil, was even more dramatic.

Hamilton was battling for the title with Ferrari's home favourite Felipe Massa and the Briton's fourth place was going to be enough to secure the crown when a late rain shower changed everything.

Leader Massa and Hamilton were among those who changed to intermediate tyres but Toyota's Timo Glock stayed out, which lifted him up to fourth.

Hamilton, now in fifth, had Toro Rosso's Vettel right behind him and couldn't afford to lose another position. With just over two laps to go, he ran wide and Vettel was through.

Massa crossed the line to win the race with Hamilton still sixth. The Ferrari pit crew, Massa's family and the Brazilian fans celebrated but with the rain intensifying, Glock was slowing on his dry-weather tyres and Hamilton passed him into the final corner to take the title by a single point. It was heart-stopping stuff.

Fernando Alonso

First championship: 2005

Age: 24 years and 57 days

Stage of his F1 career when title was won: Fourth full season

F1 debut: 2001 Australian Grand Prix (aged 19)

Alonso established control of the 2005 championship early in the season by winning four of the first seven races and never relinquished it.

The Spaniard's speed and consistency ensured he prevailed over Raikkonen, whose McLaren-Mercedes was fast but fragile. A third place at the Brazilian Grand Prix was enough to give Alonso the title with two races to spare.

He won a second consecutive title in 2006, also for Renault, and the 45-year-old remains one of the great personalities and outstanding talents in F1.

He'll be back for another season with Aston Martin in 2027, 26 years after his debut for Minardi.

Max Verstappen

First championship: 2021

Age: 24 years and 73 days

Stage of his F1 career when title was won: Seventh full season

F1 debut: 2015 Australian Grand Prix (aged 17)

Hamilton won the title on the final lap of the 2008 season but he would lose it on the final lap in 2021 in circumstances that remain a source of huge controversy.

His rival in a thrilling and intense season-long duel was Red Bull's Max Verstappen. There were plenty of flashpoints along the way and it all came to a climax in Abu Dhabi.

Verstappen and Hamilton went into the final race of the season level on points. The Dutchman qualified on pole but Mercedes' Hamilton beat him off the line and largely controlled the race thereafter, until Williams' Nicholas Latifi crashed with five laps to go, bringing out a safety car.

Hamilton did not have enough of an advantage over second-placed Verstappen to pit for fresh tyres and maintain the lead, so stayed out. Verstappen, with nothing to lose, came in and fitted softs.

Race director Michael Masi allowed the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to go past, but not those behind the Red Bull. He allowed the race to restart for one final racing lap and Verstappen overtook Hamilton, who was a sitting duck on his old hard tyres.

Verstappen and Hamilton, in their own ways, were both stunned and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff shouted over the radio to Masi: "No, Michael, no! That was so not right!"

As happened with Vettel from 2010-13, this was the first of four consecutive titles for a Red Bull driver with Verstappen dominating the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons.

Emerson Fittipaldi

First championship: 1972

Age: 25 years and 273 days

Stage of his F1 career when title was won: Second full season

F1 debut: 1970 British Grand Prix (aged 23)

Emerson Fittipaldi became the first Brazilian driver to win the F1 world title in 1972, with five wins from 12 races enough for the Lotus driver to get the better of Jackie Stewart.

Fittipaldi would secure another drivers' title for McLaren two years later but his race-winning days, in F1 at least, were over once he joined his brother's Fittipaldi team in 1976. He would have late-career success in IndyCars, winning the 1989 title and the Indy 500 twice, in 1989 and 1993.

He remained F1's youngest champion for 33 years until Alonso's first title ushered in an era where the record would change hands more regularly.