By Alan Baldwin
LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) – Kimi Antonelli will either be Formula One’s youngest world champion, well before the end of the season on current form, or the first driver to win five races in a row in a single campaign and not take the title.
A place in the sport’s history is his either way and while the crown may appear to be the 19-year-old Italian’s to lose, the question being asked now is whether it is still Mercedes teammate George Russell’s to win.
Antonelli mastered the streets of Monte Carlo on Sunday with a dominant run from pole with fastest lap while Russell failed to score for the second successive race.
The championship leader has moved 66 points clear of Ferrari’s seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton — who has now been runner-up in the last two races — after five wins in six starts, and is 68 ahead of Russell.
WOLFF CITES VERSTAPPEN 2025 EXAMPLE
Team boss Toto Wolff’s post-race comments, about Russell’s ability to bounce back, smacked more of boosting the Briton’s morale than total conviction he can rein in the man on the other side of the garage.
“This is a long championship. Last year I remember people saying (McLaren’s Oscar) Piastri has won the championship,” said Wolff.
“Formula One is about physics, and not mystics. You don’t unlearn how to drive, and you don’t become a miracle wonder driver. I’m not stressed at all for his (Russell’s) performances because we know he’s one of the best.”
“I have no doubt that George will come back very strong,” added the Austrian.
Russell has time for an epic resurgence, with the 22-race season only a quarter done and plenty of points to be won, but history is as much against him as Lady Luck has been.
Only 10 drivers, including Antonelli, have ever won five races in a row since the Formula One championship started in 1950.
Not one of them has done so in a single season without going on to win the championship.
Past comebacks do not offer Russell a lot of hope either.
While Max Verstappen staged an amazing return from 104 points behind Piastri at the end of August last year to finish just two points adrift of title-winner Lando Norris, the four-time world champion was not fighting a teammate.
Russell is up against a rival with the same car who has dropped points to him only in the three sprints and one race — Australia — where he finished second.
Mercedes have so far won every grand prix, taken every pole position. And yet Russell is not even second in the standings.
Antonelli has been on pole in four of the six and set the fastest race lap four times. He also has Hamilton’s massively experienced former race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington on his side.
Any feeling that the Italian might be riding his luck, or the success prove a flash in the pan, has long gone.
Monaco was a real statement by another generational talent in the line of Hamilton and Verstappen, a measure of how much the youngster has learned and improved since finishing last there in 2025 after starting 15th.
Russell must now come up with some meaningful answers against a driver who is already the youngest ever F1 championship leader, as well as youngest Monaco winner and pole-sitter.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London; Editing by Toby Chopra)
