Antonelli nears F1 title as BBC debates what changes for 'Mr Consistent'
Kimi Antonelli has not won the 2026 Formula 1 world championship yet. The question now is whether anything has to change while he tries to finish the job.
That is the debate taken up by Harry Benjamin, Alice Powell and Alisha Palmowski in the BBC's Chequered Flag video, published on 11 October and titled "Do things change for 'Mr Consistent' Antonelli as he nears title?" BBC Sport
Antonelli goes into this final stretch as the leader of the Drivers' Championship, the season-long points table that decides the world champion. He sat on 302 points to 236 for Mercedes team-mate George Russell, a gap of 66 points. Formula 1 Heading into the Singapore Grand Prix, Antonelli held firm control of that intra-team fight, with Russell's title hopes on the line. Reuters
Consistency built the lead. Small gaps, every race. Antonelli's average race result this season is first place, against an average of 3.5 for Russell. Formula 1 After five rounds he was already 43 points clear, and early-season form put him on course to become Formula 1's youngest world champion well before the end of the year.
It has not all been smooth. In Baku he crashed in qualifying, started 16th and fought back to fifth. He called it his "worst weekend" of the season. Reuters
The maths still favours him. The earliest Antonelli could seal the 2026 crown would be Round 19 in Mexico. Formula 1
For fans, this means a straight Mercedes shootout in equal machinery. Same garage, same car, same points system. The panel's focus is less on speed, which Antonelli has shown, and more on handling the pressure when the title is close enough to touch.
