This year, Kimi Antonelli got lucky. Antonelli drives the fastest car on the grid. He is young—very recently a teenager, even; he turned 20 in August—and that means, when faced with an entirely new and controversial ruleset, he didn't have years of prior programming to overcome. And despite his youth, Antonelli has a good sense of narrative satisfaction. This Sunday, during the Mexican Grand Prix, he made sure to snag a podium place in the race where he became the youngest ever Formula 1 driver to win a Drivers Championship, hoisted in celebration by the generational superstars before him. Past, present, future.

It was the third iteration of an Antonelli–Max Verstappen–Lewis Hamilton podium this year. When the podium roster first occurred in Canada, still early in the season, it was already tempting to refer to the moment as legendary: Antonelli was riding a four-race win streak, and led his much more experienced teammate, George Russell, by 43 points in the championship. But last year proved that inexperienced winners can lose championships even after being staked to larger, later leads, and Antonelli is as inexperienced as it gets, while Russell was getting unlucky with engine failures and mechanical issues. Antonelli had a substantial slump in form over the summer the previous year as a rookie, after a string of good performances to start the season. Over the same stretch of the calendar this year, Antonelli suffered two engine failures from strong positions and otherwise earned a podium. Put aside those two engine failures, and so far this season, the only other race in which he did not finish on the podium was the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he finished P5.

Formula 1 is a sport in which it is notoriously difficult to distinguish generational talents by their skill rather than by their results. Even the greatest drivers of all time cannot overcome massive gaps in machinery. Even a generational driver will need the correct team, the correct car, the correct regulations, the correct teammate, the correct timing; a generational driver must deliver several seasons of consistent results to prove their standing. But last year provided a timely example of what it looks like when two merely very good drivers, matched in their very-goodness, are given a rocketship to guide to a championship: a close but not particularly exciting battle marked more by ass-over-heels fumbling and obnoxious team orders than iconic victories.

Even if Antonelli does not win again in his life, he won the 2026 Drivers Championship just as Verstappen or Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel did before him: in the sort of unfaltering fashion that draws allusions to all-time greatness. On his way to unseating Vettel as the youngest World Champion in F1 history, Antonelli also became the youngest polesitter in F1 history, the youngest driver to win a race from pole position (a task Lando Norris will tell you is harder than it looks), and the youngest driver to achieve a Grand Slam. He was the first Italian to win the Italian Grand Prix since 1966 (this year may differ depending on your opinions on the Italian diaspora), and he did so in legendary fashion. He took his first lead over his teammate with cherubic grace, and then he killed Russell's championship hopes so dead that all that remained were conspiracy theories. And with a 130-point lead over Russell and a 119-point lead on Verstappen, currently second in the standings, Antonelli clinched his victory in early November, becoming the first Italian champion since Alberto Ascari won 73 years ago.

In very F1 fashion, Sunday's race action in Mexico didn't feature much of Antonelli at all. If not for his victory, the intra-team squabbles at Ferrari and the final laps of Hamilton and Verstappen fighting each other would have defined the race. Antonelli's flashiest moment came after a red flag and a race restart, when he refused to play it safe and passed Charles Leclerc for the third podium spot, just to be able top off his victory with some champagne. But those were the sorts of stylish quirks missing from last year. Nice as it was to see a close-fought battle last year, watching an undisputed talent stunt on the rest of the field has almost been a relief.

The future is now. If Antonelli continues winning as he has shown himself capable of this year, this relief will not last. Crowds rapidly soured on Vettel, the previous youth record-holder, when he was winning, and though Antonelli has a much softer demeanor in comparison, domination does become boring to watch. You only get to be the youngest champion once.

As with Vettel, it will still be worth remembering this moment years from now. How Antonelli, on the final lap of the race, so overcome by the certainty of his championship victory, dropped two seconds in pace because he was crying already. How his race engineer, Pete Bonnington—who led Hamilton to six of his seven championships—came on the radio to offer his congratulations for Antonelli's first. And how, in response, Antonelli could only sob.