Scott Gulbransen
Kimi Antonelli wasn’t supposed to be the story of the 2026 Formula 1 season. That role belonged to his teammate George Russell, who came into the year as most pundits’ title favorite after Lewis Hamilton’s defection to Ferrari, and to a lesser extent, Lando Norris at McLaren, who had won the championship last year. Antonelli was the kid. The understudy. The 19-year-old is getting his first full season alongside a guy who’d been waiting his whole career to be Mercedes’ lead.
You know how that’s gone.
Three pole positions, three wins, and a 20-point lead in the drivers’ standings later, the teenager from Bologna heads to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this weekend chasing a fourth straight grand prix victory, which would be the first season-opening four-race win streak by anyone since Nico Rosberg in 2016. Rosberg, in case you’ve forgotten, won the championship that year.
How Kimi Antonelli Has Rocketed to the Top Spot in Formula 1
For F1 newcomers, here’s the short version of how we got here.
Kimi Antonelli came up through Mercedes’ junior program, won basically everything he entered in Italian F4, climbed the ladder fast, and got handed the Hamilton seat at 19. The expectation in most paddock corners was that he’d have a rough rookie year, learn the car, and emerge as a real contender by 2027 or 2028. Instead, he qualified on pole at his second race of the year in China, won it, then did the same in Japan and again in Miami three weeks ago, becoming the first driver in F1 history to convert each of his first three career poles into a win. Senna couldn’t do that. Schumacher couldn’t either. Neither could Hamilton.
“This is just the beginning, the road is still long,” Antonelli said after his Miami win. “But we’re working super hard, the team is doing an incredible job, and without them I wouldn’t be here.”
Toto Wolff, who is not exactly known for praising rookies easily, called the Miami drive “astounding” and said Antonelli’s stock was rising by the race.
Can Mercedes and Antonelli Continue the Win Streak?
Whether Antonelli actually keeps this streak going depends on a handful of things, none of them simple.
Mercedes is bringing its first major upgrade package of the season to Montreal this weekend, which is a story unto itself because the team deliberately skipped updates to Miami to save them for Canada. The bet was that the aero changes would work better here. The risk was that rivals would close the gap in Florida, which is exactly what happened. McLaren ran Norris to a sprint win, and he pushed Antonelli hard in the main race before settling for second. Wolff called the Canada upgrades a package that “has to work,” which is not the kind of language teams use when they’re feeling relaxed. “Performance is only performance once it is delivered on track,” he said in the team’s race preview.
McLaren isn’t standing still either. Andrea Stella’s team split its upgrade plan between Miami and Montreal, with roughly 40% of its new parts arriving this weekend, including a new front wing. Front wings matter a lot on a track that’s mostly straight and has heavy braking zones, which describes the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve perfectly.
Then there’s Russell. He won at Montreal last year. He’s historically strong here. He arrives this weekend already 20 points behind a teammate he was supposed to outscore comfortably, and he didn’t sugarcoat his Miami weekend when asked about it. “It’s certainly not fun,” Russell said when asked about the deficit. Beating Antonelli at one of his own best circuits feels less like an opportunity and more like a requirement.
And then there’s Max Verstappen, which is a whole other situation.
Related: F1: Mercedes Has Everyone Talking About 2026
Is Canada Max Verstappen’s Final Chance to Save 2026 Season?
Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s four-time world champion, sits seventh in the championship with 26 points. His best result of the season is a fifth at Miami. Red Bull’s first year as an in-house power unit constructor in partnership with Ford has not gone well, and the RB22 has been described in various corners of the paddock as overweight, draggy in the wrong places, and short on downforce.
Verstappen has called the 2026 regulations “a joke” and has openly said he needs to think about his future in the sport. The Montreal track historically rewards strong engine performance and efficient energy management, both of which Red Bull currently lacks. He’s also won three straight here from 2022 to 2024, so writing him off entirely is a mistake. But the gap to Mercedes is real, and one weekend of better feel in the car isn’t going to close it.
This is also another sprint weekend, the third of the year, which means just one hour of free practice on Friday before the format kicks into qualifying mode. Cooler temperatures are in the forecast, with rain a possibility. The Wall of Champions has been ending weekends prematurely for the careers of past world champions since 1999, so the chance of chaos is, as always at Montreal, real.
A win on Sunday would put Antonelli in some genuinely strange historical company. The youngest championship leader in F1 history. The first driver to convert his first three career poles into wins. And now the first since Rosberg, a decade ago, to start a season with four straight grand prix victories.
He’s not getting ahead of himself.
“We just need to keep pushing and keep raising the bar,” Antonelli said in Miami, “because we saw this weekend how much closer it was compared to the first three races.”
The kid won’t blink. The question this weekend is whether anybody else on the grid can make him.
