F1's youngest world champions

November 1, 2026 · Yahoo Sports

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Kimi Antonelli crossing the line in third place at the Mexico Grand Prix has resulted in the Mercedes driver becoming Formula 1’s youngest ever world champion.

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The Italian has achieved his childhood dream at just 20 years old, which means he takes the record from Sebastian Vettel who was still only 23 when he became world champion in 2010.

It comes after a dominant season for Antonelli who has clinched the crown with four rounds remaining in 2026, thanks to nine wins, 16 podiums in total and seven pole positions.

So it’s put the youngster among the greats, but who else managed to achieve such success at an early age?

There are now five drivers to have become an F1 world champion before the age of 25 and, as will be seen, the list is rather biased towards the modern age.

5. Max Verstappen - 2021, 24y73d

Max Verstappen, Abu Dhabi 2021

It says a rather lot about Max Verstappen that he became world champion in his seventh season of F1 - yet he was still younger than 25. The Dutchman was simply destined for motor racing greatness from a young age, receiving tough lessons from his ex-F1 driver dad Jos, before winning almost everything in karting.

Verstappen contested just one season of junior single-seaters, European F3 in 2014, before making his F1 debut with Toro Rosso the following year. That made him F1’s youngest ever driver, aged just 17, and an impressive rookie season earned him a promotion to Red Bull in 2016, where he has remained ever since.

Victories weren’t particularly regular early on - he took eight between 2016 and 2020 - amid Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes dominance, but then Red Bull produced a rocketship for 2021 - helped by a heavily upgraded Honda engine.

It led to the battle all had hoped for: Hamilton versus Verstappen. The master versus the apprentice. A driver vying for a record-breaking eighth crown versus a driver fighting for his first. Between them they won all but one - Sergio Perez in Baku - of the opening 10 grands prix and the last of that period, Silverstone, was when tensions escalated as Hamilton and Verstappen collided at Copse.

The Red Bull driver suffered a 50G crash, ending his run of three straight victories, whereas Hamilton overcame a 10s penalty to win and cut his deficit to just eight points. The standings ebbed and flowed across the following rounds, tensions remained high with another collision in Monza, before it looked as though Verstappen’s Mexico win had essentially secured him the title at round 18.

It gave him a 19-point advantage with four remaining, but then Hamilton won the next three, including Brazil and Saudi Arabia where they were again at loggerheads, to enter the Abu Dhabi finale level on points.

But it’s well documented what came next with Verstappen profiting from the safety car fiasco to overtake Hamilton on the final lap and become world champion. The floodgates subsequently opened with Verstappen taking the next three crowns to become a four-time champion at the age of only 27.

4. Fernando Alonso - 2005, 24y58d

Fernando Alonso, Brazil 2005

It all happened at a young age for Fernando Alonso, who made his F1 debut with Minardi in 2001, joined Renault as its test driver in 2002, before moving into the full-time line-up for 2003, taking his maiden win that season.

The Spaniard remained a front runner in 2004 ahead of making that title-clinching step in 2005, as Renault profited from regulation changes for that year. No longer could teams make a tyre change during the race, nor could an engine be used for less than two weekends so reliability, not outright speed, was key.

Renault had that in abundance in Alonso’s fight against McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen. The Renault driver started fast with 26 points - two wins and a podium - across the opening three grands prix, compared to just seven for the Finn.

Raikkonen came back, winning three of the next four rounds, as McLaren grew in competitiveness as the season wore on. But the British marque struggled to translate its outright speed into championship success, as technical problems held Raikkonen back on various occasions throughout the year.

So Alonso just had to stick to what he was doing, consistently fighting for podiums with one in each of the final six grands prix, and the title was eventually his at round 17 of 19 in Brazil. At the time he became F1’s youngest ever world champion, at the time surpassing Emerson Fittipaldi’s record (25y273d) that had stood since 1972, before going back-to-back in 2006.

Unfortunately for the Spaniard though, a third F1 title is yet to follow despite many near misses like 2010 and 2012. But at the age of 45-year-old is still impressively going and holds the record for the most grand prix starts.

3. Lewis Hamilton - 2008, 23y300d

Lewis Hamilton, Brazil 2008

Antonelli is now one of three drivers to have become world champion in only their second year, following Jacques Villeneuve (1997) and Lewis Hamilton (2008). Though, of course, Hamilton could have easily achieved it in his rookie campaign having entered the Brazil finale as championship leader, only to be pipped by Raikkonen at the end.

But the Briton certainly made up for it in 2008, entering as the pre-season favourite and delivering upon that tag by winning the Melbourne opener from pole. The following rounds, however, proved that it wouldn’t be so straightforward for Hamilton as Ferrari emerged as a genuine challenger by winning the next four grands prix to have Raikkonen and Felipe Massa 1-2 in the championship.

So it quickly emerged as a two-team title fight, much like 2007, and the middle part of 2008 is where Hamilton displayed his best form with wins in Monaco, Silverstone and Germany. His home race, in particular, was one for the ages having won by over a minute in the wet - helped by jumping from fourth to first off the line.

Silverstone marked the exact halfway point of the season and the second half saw a two-man title race emerge of Hamilton versus Massa. Although the Brazilian, 27 at the time, won three races to his rival’s one across the final nine rounds, he was hampered by inconsistency.

There was the engine issue in Hungary and then the botched pitstop in Singapore, where he famously left his grid box with a fuel hosepipe still attached. So those non-scores ultimately cost him against the consistent Hamilton, who subsequently took his maiden title in dramatic fashion by overtaking Timo Glock at the final corner of the final race in Interlagos. At the time becoming F1’s youngest world champion.

2. Sebastian Vettel - 2010, 23y134d

Sebastian Vettel, Abu Dhabi 2010

The 2010 F1 campaign was one of the most unpredictable in the modern era, featuring a three-team title fight with four drivers ultimately in with a chance on the final day. Perhaps the most unlikely of those is the one who triumphed.

Vettel was always in the background that year, having never led the standings until the end of the final race. The Red Bull driver began with P4 and a DNF in the opening two rounds, before taking victory in Malaysia. He’d have to wait another five races for another win as Ferrari’s Alonso, team-mate Mark Webber, plus McLaren pair Hamilton and Jenson Button led the way in the championship.

It was a really topsy-turvy season, the title could have been anybody’s, and it was largely thanks to a late resurgence from Vettel that handed him his maiden crown. The German won three of the final four rounds, one of those coming at the Abu Dhabi finale in which he entered 15 points behind leader Alonso.

But Ferrari seemed more worried about Webber than Vettel, having reacted to an early pitstop from the Australian which eventually led to Alonso being stuck behind Renault’s Vitaly Petrov for much of the afternoon.

The Spaniard finished seventh that day, Webber was eighth, while Vettel cruised to victory to snatch the title from his rivals. It kickstarted an era of dominance from the Red Bull star, who was a four-time world champion come 2013 before various near-misses in the ground-effect era.

1. Kimi Antonelli - 2026, 20y68d

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

The 2026 campaign was always going to be Antonelli’s first chance of fighting for the world title, as Mercedes headed into the regulation switch as the heavy pre-season favourite thanks to its strong engine.

But it was George Russell that many had their eyes on for the drivers’ crown, following a very strong 2025 compared to Antonelli’s up-and-down rookie campaign. The Briton finished 169 points ahead of the teenager, who often made needless mistakes, and considering that form, plus his superior experience, it just seemed a given that Russell would lead Mercedes’ title charge this year.

Even more so when he won the Melbourne opener from pole, but from round two in Shanghai, Antonelli has been the dominant driver surpassing all expectations. The bedrock of his title-winning season was certainly the five, consecutive victories he enjoyed from China to Monaco, while Russell endured rotten luck such as his engine failure while leading in Canada.

Then for a moment, however, it did look as though a genuine title fight could be on the cards when Antonelli suffered two non-scores - Austria and Silverstone - between rounds seven and nine, while Russell took three podiums including a win. That cut the gap to 25 points but in a champion-like manner, Antonelli stopped all momentum that was possibly heading Russell’s way by winning at Spa from pole, while his team-mate suffered a lap one clash with Hamilton.

So from then onwards, it’s been pretty clear that Antonelli would become a world champion at only 20 years old. Even as Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull closed in on Mercedes thanks to upgrades, meaning victories weren’t as common for the Silver Arrows, Antonelli still kept his cool and did what was needed to remain top of the standings.

He took P2 in Zandvoort and Sepang, minimised the damage in Baku by rising from 16th to fifth, while not forgetting his sensational home victory at Monza from 19th on the grid. It’s been a season of very few mistakes for Antonelli, so far finishing on the podium in all but three rounds, culminating in his crowning moment at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

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F1&#39;s youngest world champions