Kimi Antonelli is the newest Formula 1 winner. In this Sunday’s (15) Chinese GP, he made good use of pole position, the good performance of Mercedes and secured the top step of the podium, becoming the 116th different winner in the history of the category.
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Alongside the Italian on the podium were George Russell, his teammate, and Lewis Hamilton, who returns to the top 3 after enduring a complicated year at Ferrari in 2025. The seven-time champion is also competing in his 20th season in the main category of world motorsport this year.
It turns out that Kimi and Lewis being side by side on the podium also exposes two very curious extremes of Formula 1. Considering that with the triumph, Antonelli becomes the second youngest winner in history, behind only Max Verstappen at 19 years, six months and 18 days.
Meanwhile, the seven-time Ferrari champion reached his 202nd podium and also became the first driver in history to achieve podiums with the three largest manufacturers: McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari.
When Hamilton made his F1 debut in 2007, Kimi was only six months old – the young driver was born in August 2006 and Lewis had his first race in March 2007. Not only that, when the Briton was crowned champion for the first time in 2008, the Italian was only two years old.
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And now sharing the same podium – and the same engineer, since Peter Bono Bonington is working with Kimi at Mercedes -, it only highlights how Formula 1 has two extremes on its grid: those more experienced, definitively consolidated in the history books, while there are others who are taking their first steps in the category and just now starting to leave their mark.
The tendency is for more and more young drivers to enter the category – Arvid Lindlblad is the rookie in 2026 and is only 18 years old, turning 19 in August -, bringing a natural renewal of the field, but still going wheel-to-wheel with big names in motorsport like Hamilton himself and Fernando Alonso.
This is the first podium that Antonelli and Hamilton have shared in Formula 1, but the trend is that they will be together more and more in the next races on the calendar and make the two extremes present in the category today increasingly evident.
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