Piero Ferrari says Andrea Kimi Antonelli reminds him of Niki Lauda, as he has already removed a weakness from his driving that Max Verstappen took “years” to overcome.

Antonelli is on course to join Lauda and Verstappen in the F1 champions’ club, with the 20-year-old closing in on the 2026 title. It is even possible for Antonelli to win his first title this Sunday in the United States Grand Prix in round 18 of 23, with the Italian 102 points ahead.

It would surely now take a miracle for any rival to deny Antonelli from winning the 2026 F1 drivers’ title, and thus also becoming the youngest-ever F1 champion. Lauda lifted the first of his three titles in 1975 aged 26 and Verstappen won the first of his four in 2021 aged 24.

Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen have scored the most points since round 7/23 in Barcelona 🌟 How will the drivers’ standings finish?

Piero Ferrari is a big fan of how Andrea Kimi Antonelli can avoid ‘serious mistakes’

Piero Ferrari is a big fan of what Antonelli is producing with Mercedes to put himself in the position to become the first Italian F1 champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953. Yet he admits that his father Enzo Ferrari would have likely opposed signing Antonelli, as he did not want to expose Italian drivers to the “unbearable” pressure of being an Italian driver for Ferrari.

One of the aspects about Antonelli that stands out most to Piero Ferrari is how he seldom makes any “serious” mistakes, whereas Verstappen made several major errors in his first few years in Formula 1. Red Bull placed the Dutchman at their sister team (then still called Toro Rosso) for his F1 debut at just 17 years old in 2015, before he then moved up in 2016.

Ferrari told Quotidiano Nazionale: “Kimi reminds me of Niki. And from my point of view, it’s an extraordinary compliment, obviously well-deserved…

“In Formula 1, age once mattered; even a champion like Lauda arrived on the track a few years older than Antonelli. Now, we live in an era where debuts are made much earlier.

“Given this premise, the comparison holds true because Kimi, like the first Niki at Ferrari, immediately demonstrated an almost surprising maturity.

“I don’t recall the Austrian making any serious mistakes when my father entrusted him with our car. Likewise, Antonelli was able to avoid the mistakes that stem from inexperience. This is a very significant detail, because it testifies to the champion’s poise…

“Max is a phenomenon! But it’s also fair to point out that in his very first years in Grand Prix racing, the Dutchman made more mistakes than Kimi [has]. Then, of course, the comparison between them will be highly savoured.”

Let’s hear your podium prediction for the United States Grand Prix this weekend! 🇺🇸

Antonelli goes to the Circuit of the Americas with his first shot at sealing the 2026 F1 title in the United States GP having scored eight wins from the first 17 Grands Prix this season. The Bologna boy also has six pole positions and 14 podiums, and has secured points in 15 races.

The only times that Antonelli has failed to score points so far this season were because of a battery failure in Barcelona while hunting Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton for the victory and due to a broken left wheel shield at Silverstone while hunting Charles Leclerc of Ferrari for the win.

Antonelli also finished fifth in Baku for his only non-podium finish so far this season, having made the only serious mistake of his campaign during qualifying. Without facing any actual pressure at the time, Antonelli crashed out during Q1 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Turn 1.

It would be reasonable to also note that Antonelli received a five-second time penalty in the British GP for exceeding track limits by trying to force his Mercedes to corner quickly despite his damage. Additionally, Antonelli crashed during FP3 in Australia back in round one, which left Mercedes with a huge task to repair his car, before the Italian qualified P2 in Melbourne.