Four races in a row. For a 19-year-old in his debut Formula 1 season, that is not just impressive, it is borderline ridiculous. Kimi Antonelli crossed the line in Montreal on Sunday to claim his fourth consecutive victory of the 2026 season, and in doing so, he has turned what looked like a competitive championship into something that is starting to look very one-sided, very fast.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Grand Prix was not straightforward. For the first 30 laps, Antonelli and his Mercedes teammate George Russell traded the lead multiple times in what was one of the most entertaining intra-team battles fans have seen in years. Sky Sports F1\u2019s Martin Brundle called it \u201ca bit of a classic,\u201d and he was not wrong. The two drivers came dangerously close to making contact on more than one occasion, a day after their already heated sprint race collision. But then Russell\u2019s power unit failed and suddenly the race changed shape entirely.<\/p>\n
With Russell parked on the side of the circuit, Antonelli had a clear track ahead. He managed the remainder of the race calmly, crossing the line more than ten seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who came through from fifth to claim second. The result extended Antonelli\u2019s championship lead to 43 points over Russell, who remains second despite not finishing in Montreal. The Italian now sits on 131 points through five rounds.<\/p>\n
For Mercedes as a constructor, the picture is even more striking. Mercedes lead Ferrari by 72 points in the constructors\u2019 standings, and with both their drivers consistently at the sharp end of the grid, there is no obvious weakness to exploit. The W16 appears to be the class of the field under the new 2026 regulations, which have reset the technical order across the paddock entirely.<\/p>\n
What makes Antonelli\u2019s run particularly remarkable is the context. He arrived at Mercedes as the replacement for Lewis Hamilton, one of the most decorated drivers in the sport\u2019s history. The expectation was that he would be a promising project, someone to develop over a season or two. Instead, he is leading the championship by a distance and making wins look routine.<\/p>\n
The question now is not whether Mercedes will win the constructors\u2019 title. It is whether anyone can stop Antonelli from winning the drivers\u2019 crown before the season reaches its halfway point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Four races in a row. For a 19-year-old in his debut Formula 1 season, that is not just impressive, it\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":331,"featured_media":52951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4670,9],"tags":[5598,5604,5600,5599,5603,5601,2680,5597,3349,5602],"class_list":["post-52802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-driver-standings","category-formula-1","tag-canadian-grand-prix-2026","tag-drivers-championship","tag-f1-2026","tag-f1-championship-standings","tag-f1-title-race","tag-formula-1-news","tag-george-russell","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-mercedes-f1","tag-montreal-grand-prix"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52806,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52802\/revisions\/52806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}