Kimi Antonelli is increasingly exposed off the track, and David Coulthard believes the young driver needs to adapt to the new reality while remaining in the fight for the Formula 1 title in 2026. The former driver of the category highlighted that the growing fame brings situations that the Italian had not yet faced.
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Antonelli is considered the favorite for the 2026 championship title and has a 59-point lead over George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who share second place. In addition, the Italian has seven wins, compared to two by Russell, an advantage that would also be used as a tiebreaker if the drivers finished with the same points.
This possible title win would also have a historic significance for Antonelli. At 20 years old (at the end of the current season), he would become the youngest champion in F1 history, surpassing the record set by Sebastian Vettel in 2010, when the German was 23 years old.
Coulthard, winner of thirteen GPs in Formula 1, assessed that Antonelli’s sporting evolution is accompanied by a transformation in his personal life. In an interview with RacingNews365, he said: “The challenge is that now Kimi is famous, now he is under the public eye. You saw on social media, he was on vacation at a nightclub, and the DJ called him, and he was just doing something normal.”
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According to the Scot, the difference lies in the attention that now follows every move of the driver: “But now people are filming it, so he is doing it for the first time, because before being famous, there was no DJ calling him and putting him in that situation,” he added.
For Coulthard, learning to manage this exposure will be an important part of the next stage of Antonelli’s career: “So he needs to adapt to being a famous person, in addition to being a fast racing driver. Talking to his family, I am very confident that he will keep his feet on the ground,” he concluded.
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