Ten curiosities that you didn’t know about the new F1 champion, Kimi Antonelli: his father let him drive a Lamborghini when he was 10 years old and that’s when he understood the talent he had

Andrea Kimi Antonelliat 20 years old, became Formula 1 world champion this Sunday at the Mexican GP in his second season, after unexpectedly sweeping the wheel of the dominating car at the beginning of the new 2026 regulations, passing over his partner, a driver as experienced as George Russell.

This year, the driver from Bologna definitely exploded by adapting perfectly to the driving style required by current F1 cars, where the management of electrical energy is key, and he also surprised by his mental strength despite his childish appearance.

And beyond the multiple precocity records that this course achieved as it achieved success, His figure hides multiple curiosities that say a lot about Kimi’s earthly, close and smiling personality.in addition to his mentality and the enormous sympathy he arouses in the paddock and among F1 fans.

Why is he called ‘Kimi’?

Many might think that his middle name, Kimi, is a tribute from his parents to Kimi Raikkonen. But it came about by chance. Andrea himself explained it a while ago. “It does not refer to Raikkonen. It was proposed by a dear friend of the family, called Enrico Bertaggia”revealed.

“It was because my parents didn’t know what middle name to give me. He had this idea. ‘Sounds good. Andrea Kimi Antonelli… okay, no problems.'”my parents said.” And that’s how his full name came about.

The memory of Hamilton in his motorhome toilet

He has a very good relationship with Lewis Hamiltonfrom which he learned closely as a Mercedes academy driver. Proof of this is the joke that Lewis made before leaving for Ferrari, revealed by Kimi himself last year when he showed the secrets of his room in the Mercedes motorhome for ‘Sky Sport Italia’.

The Italian did not hesitate to show the camera a funny detail in the bathroom. He showed the wall in front of the toilet. There was a message on the wall: “Lewis was here,” it said, next to Lewis Hamilton’s signature. Every time Kimi goes to the bathroom, he remembers that he is the driver who took Hamilton’s place at Mercedes.

The day his father realized how special he was

Marco Antonelli, Kimi’s father, is the owner of a GT, karting and now Italian F4 racing team. Marco revealed that he realized that his son really was a special pilot and he had the makings of a champion when he took the wheel of a Lamborghini for the first time at the Adria circuit (Italy).

The boy was only 10 years old and his father had to get behind him, in the same seat, so that the little boy could reach the steering wheel and the pedals. “I realized that I had something special the day that, at the age of 10, he drove a Lamborghini racing car in my arms on the Adria circuit. There I understood that perhaps I could stand out in the world of motorsports,” said his father, Marco.

Marco, at first, He did not want his son to become a pilot because he had tried and had encountered the difficulties inherent to this sport in climbing the different categories.. He wanted to protect his son from these difficulties and, in turn, from the helplessness generated by not being able to progress until reaching F1. But finally, he had to accept it and support his son’s dream to the fullest. He got into a kart when he was 5 years old, started competing when he was 8 years old, and just five years after leaving karting and moving to single-seaters, he won his first F1 title.

He forgot his celebration, but he remembered a promise

Kimi explained before this 2026 F1 season that if he achieved a victory, he wanted to dedicate his first victory to Usain Bolt. As? doing your celebration. But what happened? That the emotion of winning in China was such that it was forgotten. Then, in Japan, when he got his second win, he did it. He had been the fastest and he wanted to celebrate it with the celebration of the fastest man in the history of the 100 meters.

But that anecdote goes further. He forgot about that celebration in his first victory, but not about the promise he made to an Italian journalist, Roberto Chinchero.

At the beginning of the course, in Australia, Kimi had dinner with some journalists in Melbourne (a clear example of the driver’s closeness with the press, something that is not usually seen in the paddock these days) and they suggested that when he won he celebrate it as Jim Clarkwho after winning the 1967 United States GP, gave a thumbs up gesture to the person in charge of showing the checkered flag, an iconic image that Kimi repeated. He kept his promise, he remembered what he told journalistsand that celebration passed ahead of the one he himself had planned in tribute to Usain Bolt. That says a lot about how close Kimi is with everyone.

He was born near Maranello… but Ferrari didn’t want him

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was born in Bologna (August 28, 2026), capital of the same region in which the famous town where Ferrari He is based in Maranello (Emilia Romagna), but Ferrari did not sign him. He could have done it, but he rejected that option.

He raced with the Ferrari brand when he debuted in karting, and at that time, Massimo Rivola (now CEO of Aprilia Racing) was the head of the Ferrari Driver Academy and wanted to include him in the young talent program immediately, but apparently, Maurizio Arrivabene, then F1 team principal, rejected that idea because he was “too young.”

Then Toto Wolff arrived to sign him when he was 12 years old. The Austrian had missed Verstappen because he signed for Red Bull and wanted his new Max. He achieved it with Kimi, whom he subjected to similar pressure to the Dutchman by making him jump directly from the European Regional Formula to Formula 2without a previous natural step through F3. And then, after just one year in F2, he was promoted directly to Mercedes, without prior passage through a client team, directly putting the pressure of having to perform at his best in one of the best teams in F1 and as a replacement for Lewis Hamilton. It is said soon. It didn’t sink. He nailed it in his second year.

Remember all the times he set in his career

A clear demonstration of the privileged mind that Kimi Antonelli has is his remarkable ability to remember his best lap times on the tracks he has competed in different single-seater categoriesin addition to remembering his times achieved last year in F1 on different circuits, as can be seen in the following video, which went viral last year.

Rossi’s friend for the simulators

Kimi Antonelli maintains a good friendship with two Italian sports stars. Valentino Rossi and Janick Sinner.

Valentino Rossi already knew who Kimi was because he claims that he followed him because of his results in kartingbut they met later, for match in the online simulator in the pandemic. There, they decided meet in person to train together in karting. Kimi, in fact, had grown up driving on kart tracks an hour from Valentino’s hometown of Tavullia. And now, Mercedes lives in San Marino, a few kilometers from Rossi’s ranch, a place he has already visited on several occasions.

Selectivity exams in your first F1 course

Last year, Kimi Antonelli could not celebrate his first podium in F1, at the 2025 Canadian GP, ​​because I had to study for the selectivity exams after completing high school, specializing in international relations and marketing, at the institute technical-economic Gaetano Salvemini of Casalecchio di Renomunicipality near Bologna.

Days later, he had to take his first exam with his classmates from the 5th G class of the aforementioned center, whom he invited to the 2025 Emilia-Romagna GP weeks before so that they could live the F1 experience with him from the inside in Imola. After this selectivity exam, the Italian pilot attended to the media waiting for him outside the center, with total naturalness and closeness.

He combined his first year of F1 with those high school studies, taking advantage of the trips to study, and He admitted in an interview that he passed some math homework to his Mercedes engineers on F1 weekends.

First time in the paddock: he slipped into some wheels

Kimi Antonelli He will always remember his first time in the F1 paddock. It was at Hockenheim 2014. He sneaked in without anyone knowing. The Italian himself remembered it. “I couldn’t get into the paddock because I was still too young. My father (who was racing in the Porsche Supercup that weekend) decided to hide me in a pile of tires and put me on a cart. We put an umbrella over it to hide me better and make it harder to see me. I managed to pass and enter the pits and a friend of my father later got me a pass. I watched for an hour and it was a great experience. To this day we still laugh at the anecdote about the car,” Kimi expressed with a laugh.

At Mercedes they wanted to protect him

“Kimi has to learn to say no”Toto Wolff said at the beginning of the course, highlighting that he also had to learn to manage the media attention it generates. In fact, MD was able to know that Mercedes wanted to stop the trend it was seeing in 2025with many Italian media approaching the figure of his parents to know the boy’s story. The team asked that everything happen first for them. They wanted to protect the growing boy. Now, that kid is already a star. The new F1 champion.