"It's pretty incredible, especially because last year... I wouldn't say he had a bad first season in Formula 1; he was against George, who I think is very good and has performed very well, especially in the last year against Lewis.

"He's taken quite a huge step, I would say, from last year to this year in terms of optimising things and understanding how to drive this year's car more than other people as well. Dealing with the pressure, the lack of mistakes that have come from him in both qualifying races, the consistency to beat his team-mate, the way he has is pretty [strong].

"As I said, I rate George, and I think he's a very good driver. But Kimi has been two levels above George the whole season, so he's done a pretty incredible job, and I'm sure the world knows that.

"I don't need to say it. I think it's obvious enough."

If he is crowned world champion in Mexico City this weekend, Antonelli will shatter Sebastian Vettell's record from 2010, when he claimed his first title at 23 years, 4 months, 11 days. The Mercedes star will be 20 years, 2 months, 7 days old on Sunday, shattering that long-standing record.

" And all of that now is extremely satisfying to see what he's able to deliver, how he's working with the team, with Bono [Antonelli's engineer Peter Bonnington] and yielding the results. But it wasn't an easy road.

"So, I'm happy that, 99.9 per cent, he still needs to finish the race in Mexico. So, it's either going to be a big tequila party or if it's not a tequila party, then it's going to be Caipirinha the weekend afterwards.

"I think maybe it was to his benefit that the regulations were all new. When last year he came in and those cars existed, those cars existed for four years. The other drivers were used to it," he added. And all new for everyone this year. And he just made it stick with his easiness, with his mindset, with his easiness of approaching things.