F1 – Kimi Antonelli is set to become Formula One’s youngest champion, and Italy’s first in 73 years, but the 20-year-old Mercedes driver will have to win and hope the stars align if he is to convert his first ‘match point’ in Texas on Sunday.
Four years old when Sebastian Vettel became the hitherto youngest champion at 23 with Red Bull in 2010, the racer from Bologna has a mighty 102-point lead over teammate George Russell ahead of the US Grand Prix in Austin.
There will be a maximum 125 points remaining to win after the chequered flag drops at the Circuit of the Americas, meaning Antonelli – in his second season at the pinnacle of motorsport – will clinch the title if he extends his lead by 23.
Only a win would give him that margin but the Italian will still need Russell and Ferrari’s seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton to finish no higher than ninth or fifth, respectively.
Otherwise the wait to become Italy’s first champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953 rolls on to at least Mexico City a weekend later.
“I know it’s very close, I know it’s there, but I just need to make sure that I keep doing the best I can. You know, the mindset is always the same, to go out there and win and perform the best way I can,” Antonelli said after finishing third in Singapore, the race before Austin.
That result was his 14th podium of the season.
“We’re in that very uncomfortable phase of the season where you have to navigate the Thursday media with everyone saying ‘Oh, you could do it... you’ve got a first match point’,” said deputy principal Bradley Lord in a team podcast.
“People love this tennis comparison of match points, don’t they? But I think there’s something like a one-in-25 chance of that being remotely possible in Austin.
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