Antonelli Champion and Verstappen Victorious Amongst Ferrari Chaos in Mexico

Kimi Antonelli became the youngest ever F1 World Champion with a 3rd-place finish at the Mexico City Grand Prix. Max Verstappen took his sixth victory in Mexico after a brilliant start from 5th on the grid, benefitting from a tangle between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on the opening lap.

Hamilton led Leclerc into Turn 1 from pole, with the Monegasque attempting a move around the outside that put his teammate off line through Turn 3. Leclerc then tried again into Turn 4, with both drivers running off track and Leclerc emerging in front.

Verstappen passed Hamilton in the skirmish, which became the net lead as Leclerc was handed a 5-second penalty, inheriting the position as the pair pitted together on Lap 27.

Leclerc, however, stayed ahead of Hamilton, who pitted the following lap, by virtue of building up an 8-second gap in the opening stint, aided by Hamilton being stuck behind Verstappen’s medium-shod Red Bull.

The status quo remained until a suspension failure into Turn 1 on Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac caused a high-speed crash and brought out a red flag. On the restart, Hamilton passed Leclerc but was fended off by Verstappen.

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Leclerc locked up into Turn 1, bringing a sizeable flat spot that allowed Antonelli to seal his title with a podium. Despite this, Leclerc was able to just hold off Lando Norris and George Russell to 4th. 

How about the rest? 

Oscar Piastri and Arvid Lindblad collided following the red flag restart, leaving the Brit out of the race and Piastri out of the points with a 10-second penalty, despite initially limping home in 7th with damage.

Alpine looked set for a strong double points finish with Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly 7th and 9th after Piastri's penalty; however, they were both penalised after the race for yellow flag infringements. This promoted Liam Lawson to 7th from the pit lane, following a battle with the two Alpines on the restart that saw Gasly lose out on the grass at Turn 1.

As a result, Gabriel Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar were both promoted to the points in 8th and 9th, the latter recovering having been spun round by George Russell at Turn 6 on the opening lap, for which the Brit received was penalised. Ryo Hirakawa also benefitted from the late-race chaos, and was promoted to 10th for Haas to reward a very creditable debut weekend.

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Nico Hulkenberg and Ollie Bearman also made contact on the first lap after the red flag; the Audi rear-ending the Haas into Turn 4, taking the Brit out of a points-scoring position and earning the German a 10-second penalty. 

The two Williams and Sergio Perez were the other finishers, with Bottas and the two Aston Martins the other three retirees. The Silverstone-based team endured another nightmare day, with both cars returning in the opening 5 laps with power unit issues. 

A fitting coronation 

In many ways, it seemed almost fate that Antonelli would seal his first championship on the podium with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton; the three generational drivers of the current grid. The image of the top two holding the Italian aloft on the podium will be an iconic moment in F1 history for decades to come.

Hamilton in particular: Mercedes “swapped a GOAT for a Kid”, as put by David Croft, referring to Hamilton handing his seat over to Antonelli for 2025. He saw the new champion progress through the ranks at Mercedes, leaving a famous message of good luck in his new motorhome, with the Italian now the latest champion under the guise of Peter Bonnington.

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To a degree, it was a race that epitomised Antonelli’s championship campaign, despite not winning the race. He ran a lonely 4th for most of the afternoon, quietly creating a tyre offset, and may have even taken the lead had the red flag come a couple of laps sooner. Ultimately, he was able to pick up the pieces from Leclerc’s mishap with an outstanding overtake to still make the podium. 

At 20 years of age, Antonelli is F1’s youngest champion by three years from Sebastian Vettel, and it is scary to think what he could go on to achieve with drivers racing into their 40s. He is the first driver to take his inaugural title in the same season as his first win since 1967, showing the astonishing rate at which he has developed and matured from his rollercoaster rookie year. 

Where does Ferrari go from here? 

If Monza wasn’t the final straw in the relationship between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, this certainly was. Whilst they are able to separate the on-track and off-track dynamic, this was another result needlessly thrown away, and another where Hamilton will feel the more aggrieved. 

The 7-time champion made his displeasure about this clear towards his team throughout the race. He claimed “we’ve got big problems”, vowing to have “serious discussions” afterwards and highlighting an issue within Leclerc's mentality. He feels that not only has his teammate hampered his race in Monza and Mexico, but other situations such as ignoring team orders in Zandvoort and not swapping positions in Singapore, as he put it after the team's home race: "there's no we in it".

The Brit’s displeasure was twofold. Firstly, he felt Leclerc’s infraction was essentially beneficial in relation to the pair; due to both the extreme overheating issues seen in Mexico City and the presence of Verstappen, Leclerc could remain in front of his teammate even after his stop. Hamilton also earned a 10-second penalty for a similar incident last year. 

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However, his bigger gripe was clearly with his teammate. Ferrari had the quickest car across the weekend, and ran 1-2 after the opening corner in a race where overtaking was virtually impossible. It is almost unquestionable that this move cost the team victory. 

It begs the question of what would happen if the pair were fighting for the title, and brings Fred Vasseur’s leadership into disrepute, who pointed to a "lack of respect" towards the Ferrari team and brand. The talk of the drivers working together after Monza clearly fell on deaf ears, at least on one side of the garage, and with two Number One drivers, it remains to be seen what rules of engagement can be put in place going forward to stop drivers taking matters into their own hands. 

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