Here's the thing: Kimi Antonelli's championship-winning drive in Mexico was even closer to disaster than we realized. While a P3 finish at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was enough for the young Italian to secure his maiden title by outscoring his nearest rivals George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, his machine barely made it to the chequered flag.
Mercedes revealed after the race that severe mechanical issues threatened to stop the car in the late stages. Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord explained on the High Performance Racing podcast that upon removing the floor after the race, the car was completely covered in oil due to a cracked sump.
Antonelli himself reported that he could feel the engine starting to struggle with roughly four laps to go. It left him right on the edge of retirement, yet the car somehow held together long enough to secure the result.
Before nursing his W17 home behind race winner Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Hamilton, the 20-year-old pulled off a bold move to climb from P4 to the podium. Capitalizing on a massive lock-up that left Charles Leclerc with a tyre down to the canvas, Antonelli pounced at Turn 1.
Lord praised the maneuver as arguably the cleanest Turn 1 overtake of the entire day, noting how the driver simply saw an opportunity on the brakes and cleanly ran through the apex. That crucial pass sealed a rostrum featuring a staggering 12 Drivers' Championships combined.
Lord pointed to that clinical instinct as a defining trait of the Italian driver, comparing it to previous smart drives against heavyweights like Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris. When the dust settled, the team realized they had pulled off something special with a podium lineup featuring Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Kimi Antonelli.
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