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The story
In the F1 Mexico City GP finale, Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished third to clinch the 2026 World Championship — making him the youngest champion in F1 history. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the race, with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in second, while last-minute stand-in Ryo Hirakawa finished 13th. The thread lit up over several topics: celebrating the first Italian champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953 (a 73-year gap), debating how 45-year-old Alonso is still racing at the top level, and noting George Russell’s rough patch.
Mon, Nov 2, 7:25 AM JST — motorsport.com Japan
The F1 Mexico City GP race took place, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) finishing third to secure the 2026 F1 World Championship. He is the youngest champion in history.
The race was won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in second.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Who's this 'Laura' you're talking about?
Motorsport lets you fudge it more than most sports — there used to be guys racing into their 50s, so 45 isn't out of the question.
Like hell we're losing.
Russell: '…'
Sinner in men's tennis,
Antonelli in F1,
Italian athletes have really been on fire lately.
Tennis
F1
Basketball
Volleyball
Baseball
Even though Serie A attendance is doing great?
And nobody over there cares about baseball anyway lol
Serie A:
revenue up 1.55x over the past decade
attendance back to peak-era levels
several clubs are renovating or building new stadiums, so it's only going to keep growing
He said his driving style just can't find any speed in the 'charging Grand Prix' races (ones that reward energy management) — the rules change again next year, so he might get another shot.
Guys who actually win championships are the ones who can adapt their approach.
Russell's problem is he's just not trying to learn.
Notice how they never actually say what age that is.
More and more articles like this these days — written by people too lazy to think about what readers actually want to know.
They just want clicks, so they obsess over the headline and don't bother matching it to the actual content.
Unfortunately, that's fine by them — readers settle for the lowest common denominator too.
Even back in the '90s people were saying, 'why are there so many Italian drivers but none of them ever become champion?'
Apparently it's been 73 years — not since F1's 4th season ever.
Actually the opposite — in Senna's era, downforce levels were climbing from a low baseline, and a lot of drivers simply couldn't keep up physically. These days you need high-G tolerance AND the ability to juggle complex button inputs, so the demands on body and mind are harsher than ever.
Patrese
Fisichella
Modena
Nannini
Capelli
Trulli
Zanardi
Don't forget Alboreto — he got pretty close in a title fight.
Even Tsunoda? Even Takachiho Inoue?
Guess they're just Ferrari-brained like the team itself… (i.e., hot-headed/dramatic)
Guys like Alboreto and Modena, for instance.
Background and talking points
Until Antonelli’s win, Alberto Ascari in 1953 was the only Italian ever crowned F1 world champion — making this a 73-year gap. Despite Italy being Ferrari’s home turf, the long slump of Italian-born drivers owes mainly to F1’s nature, where differences in team strength (car performance) weigh heavily; the thread repeatedly made the point that ‘in the end it all comes down to the car.’ Alonso still racing at 45 was also a hot topic — the backdrop being that the brutal physical toll of the Senna-Prost era has eased thanks to advances in electronic control and power steering, extending drivers’ careers (the thread was split between a ‘physical load went down’ theory and a ‘different kind of load, like complex button operations, went up’ theory, with no consensus reached). Ryo Hirakawa’s 13th-place finish came after jumping in as an emergency mid-season substitute, a point the article itself doesn’t flag as making him not directly comparable to a regular full-season driver.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Express+) thread “[F1] Mexico City GP Final: Antonelli Shines as Youngest-Ever Champion! Verstappen Wins Chaotic Race, Ryo Hirakawa Finishes 13th.”
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