LONDON — Kimi Antonelli says he knew from the first moment he drove this year's Mercedes that he would be transformed as a Formula 1 driver in 2026, heading into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with an 81-point lead in the drivers' championship. The 20-year-old Italian, in only his second season in F1, told BBC Sport in an exclusive interview that a damp, cold January day at Silverstone provided the first signal of his breakthrough year.
"It was just a few laps in the wet," Antonelli says, "but I just felt better in the car, much better than I felt last year. Also the car felt well, but I just felt better mentally in the car. Less tense, more relaxed and more mature." He described last year as "not great," adding: "I was driving very tense most of the time, I wasn't able to extract the potential out of me. This year, it's a lot different. The mindset has been the biggest change." Even while running away with the championship, he insists he is "still finding my way" in F1 and is "surprised" by the extent of his progress.
After 14 grands prix, with either eight or nine remaining depending on the war in the Middle East, Antonelli is 81 points clear of Mercedes team-mate George Russell and has been a factor in every grand prix. He was comprehensively outperformed by Russell in 2025, when Mercedes' advantage for the new regulatory era made the Briton the pre-season championship favourite, and Russell duly won the opening race in Australia. Antonelli finished less than three seconds behind at the flag, a second moment of realisation after a major setback. "I had a big, big crash in FP3," Antonelli recalls. "But then thanks to the mechanics - who all throughout the season have done an incredible job, but on that specific occasion, it is a miracle - I was able to go back in the car and push again in the high speed and getting close to the limit." He said the crash compromised qualifying and race set-up, yet staying close showed it was "a different story compared to last year," adding: "If it would have happened last year, I wouldn't have been able to overcome that."
Antonelli said his difficult debut season was haunted by his first grand prix weekend outing, when Mercedes gave him a first practice run at the 2024 Italian Grand Prix at Monza the day before formally announcing him as the replacement for Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton. Blindingly fast on his first flying lap, he crashed heavily on his second. Team principal Toto Wolff played it down at the time, saying mistakes were expected as Antonelli found his feet, but the incident lingered. "Monza stayed in my head for a very long time," Antonelli says. "I think all throughout last season, at least. Definitely that was a big thing that was kind of slowing me down." He said the fear of making a mistake grew stronger during a difficult period in the middle of 2025: "If I even do a mistake or I crash, it's even worse. So yeah, it's been a thing that has been bothering me a lot last year. This year I was able to just put it behind."
Putting it behind required intense behind-the-scenes work analysing 2025, plus extensive pre-season preparation and work with his mental coach. "The mindset going into this season, it was mainly trying to be able to extract more out of my potential," he says. "The preparation that I did in pre-season was very, very intense. But it helped me a lot to arrive ready for this season." He added: "Plus, I did a lot of work with my mental coach. Trying to get my head right, my thoughts right on understanding the goal, and understanding that the most important thing is to be ready and to stay present in the moment. Not trying to think about final results or what would happen if I wouldn't achieve that." Now a winner at his home Italian Grand Prix earlier this month, where he crowd-surfed with joyful fans, Antonelli said the first win and first pole "took a lot of weight off my shoulder" after a 2025 where he started to put things together late but it was "still not great."