Kimi Antonelli Says Premature Mexico GP Congratulations Made Him Angry Before F1 Title Win

Kimi Antonelli had to finish the Mexico City Grand Prix with at least two points to secure his first Formula 1 title. He left with third place, the championship and a story about how awkward the build-up had become: people in the paddock were congratulating him before the race was even run.

The 20-year-old Mercedes driver said that premature certainty made him angry and more tense than usual. One person congratulated him on the title, he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. With the decisive race still ahead, he was in no mood to treat the outcome as settled.

A title at stake, even with only two points needed

Antonelli arrived in Mexico for the season’s 19th round needing just two points to clinch the championship. That target may look modest on paper, but it left him with a result to secure in a high-pressure setting. A small points requirement doesn’t remove the need to race well or make the weekend feel routine, especially when the result carries the weight of a first title.

He was asked how he would approach the final four rounds now that he no longer had a championship to chase. His answer was direct: “With a clear mind.” Winning in Mexico, he said, had lifted a burden. He could stop worrying that something might jinx his chances and leave behind the superstitious gestures he had been making during the title run.

That relief came after a weekend he described as “a nightmare” because of the attention around the championship. “Everyone was talking to me as if I’d already won the title,” he said. The congratulation from one paddock visitor was enough to prompt anger, not celebration. His reaction points to the odd pressure of being treated as a champion before the result is secured: the conversation can make a driver feel that the race is already decided, while the job still depends on what happens on track.

The start left Antonelli wondering what might have been

Antonelli said he was more tense than usual even before the lights went out. At the start, he left what he called “a door as big as a house” open for Max Verstappen. Looking back after the race, he wondered whether avoiding that opening might have allowed him to win the Grand Prix.

That reflection puts the Mexico result in useful perspective. Antonelli did not present third place as a perfect drive, and he could still identify a moment he would have liked to handle differently. But the race result met the need that mattered most: he scored enough to seal the championship. Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton joined him on the podium, while Antonelli’s own focus had shifted from winning that Sunday’s race to securing the season-long prize.

He summed up the trade-off with a short line: “I won something more important in Mexico.” The comment doesn’t erase the missed opportunity at the start. It does explain why the podium finish mattered more to him than a possible Grand Prix victory.

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Attention followed other drivers through the paddock

Antonelli wasn’t the only driver to have a tense moment around the Mexico weekend. Isack Hadjar was filmed pushing away a fan who tried to take a selfie with him on his way to the Red Bull garages for FP1, without first asking. He was summoned to the stewards and received a formal warning. Hadjar finished ninth after early contact with Mercedes’ George Russell.

The incidents involved different circumstances, but both show how quickly a driver’s workday can be interrupted by attention away from the circuit. Antonelli’s frustration came from being treated as though a title was already won; Hadjar’s encounter began with an unwanted attempt at a photo. For Antonelli, the outcome in Mexico finally made the congratulatory talk accurate. His account also makes clear that, until the race was over, it was one more source of pressure to manage.

Now that the championship is secured, Antonelli says he can tackle the last four rounds with a clearer head. The Mexico weekend gave him the title, while his comments reveal what the result demanded before it was settled: keeping his focus through the noise, then accepting that a third-place finish was enough.