Hold the Antonelli hype for a race or two longer

Kimi Antonelli is making history, and if nothing else, the statistics from his current run put him in elite company.

Victory in Miami on Sunday afternoon was his third in a row and means he has now won his first three grands prix consecutively. Only two other drivers have done that in history: Damon Hill and Mika Hakkinen.

Pole position in Miami on Saturday afternoon was also his third in a row and means he has now taken his first three pole positions consecutively, too. Only two other drivers have done that in history: Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher.

World champions, all of them. It’s elite company for Antonelli to be in.


But he’s also standing alone, because combining both feats - converting his first three pole positions into victories (and his first three victories at that) - is something nobody else has done.

“It’s a cool stat, but don’t really want to think too much about it,” Antonelli said. “I’m just going to enjoy the moment, but I know at the same time that we’re just going to get back to work early because obviously we have another break, which is not ideal. But just going to try to prepare Canada the best way as possible in order to be back even stronger. But yeah, it’s cool, I guess.”

Cool is surely an understatement when you factor in the number of championships won by the quartet mentioned above. Schumacher, Senna, Hakkinen and Hill have 13 between them, and Antonelli now sits 20 points clear of second-placed George Russell at the top of the standings himself.

It’s hard to prevent title talk at this stage, despite Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff’s attempts.

“I think Kimi can win championships, but I would never say that now about this year,” Wolff told SiriusXM. “There's hopefully a bright future ahead, but talking about championships after four races is always way too early. There's 18 to go. He has an unbelievable teammate who will bounce back from this weekend and the competitors in the other teams, so I wouldn't talk about that.”

Where Antonelli was particularly impressive in Miami was a lack of mistakes under pressure once he’d gotten a Turn 1 lock-up out of the way off the line. It could have been the start of an unravelling of his race chances, but he robustly defended third place and then worked his way to the front through strong pace and strategy before withstanding Lando Norris’ attentions.


“[The win is] a very special one,” Antonelli admitted. “It was not an easy one because I had a bit of everything. OK, the start was still not great, plus I did a mistake, then I was lucky with how things played out despite the mistake.


“Obviously we were in a fight, me, Charles [Leclerc] and Lando, and then I got passed by Lando, did a little mistake on energy, and then I was chasing. Luckily the undercut worked very well, and then we found ourselves being chased. But it was not easy because Lando was quick and he was applying a lot of pressure. And I just knew I couldn’t make any mistakes.”

Despite another tick off the list of qualities required to become a champion, there still needs to be a hold put on the Antonelli hype train before it can be allowed to leave the station, given the context of the past three weekends. It’s a great sample set, but three very different wins that also provide counter arguments to not get too carried away just yet.

In China, it could be argued George Russell looked quicker and was unfortunate with a reliability issue in qualifying. In Japan, Antonelli held the other hand despite Russell's claims to the contrary. In Miami, Antonelli was particularly strong - and his teammate particularly weak - a year ago, too, and that form followed through.

The next race in Montreal was a stronger one for Russell in 2025, as he took victory 12 months ago having so nearly done so the year before. Antonelli did secure his first podium, but he was not quite on Russell’s level on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

“George for sure is going to be super strong in Canada. He’s always been very strong there, so he’s for sure going to be back at the top.


“But I think I feel much more comfortable in the car, much more in control as well. And I think we’re just going to keep trying our best. I’m going to try to maximize every time I go on track. But let’s see as well how Canada is going to be. Hopefully we can repeat like this weekend, but we’ll see also how the upgrades work.”

Russell says momentum can change quickly and believes that had he not faced so many reliability issues, Miami would be looked upon as the one blip in a strong start to the season. Instead, the pressure has switched firmly to his side of the garage to capitalize on his potential in Montreal and start to reduce that 20-point gap.

It’s over the next two races where Antonelli’s title credentials will really come to the fore. How he performs relative to Russell in Canada will be telling, and beating his teammate again would be a significant line in the sand. But just as important will be how he handles a weekend where he might well be behind Russell, or certainly in a close fight with him.


Then comes Monaco, a race every driver dreams of winning, and many have not had the cards fall their way. Leaving the Principality, we’ll know a lot more about Antonelli’s ability to handle the lofty position he’s in and whether there’s any stopping the momentum he’s currently building up.

As he continues to write himself new records, it becomes that bit harder to envisage the 19-year-old not sustaining a significant title challenge.