The Formula 1 season hasn’t reached the halfway point yet, but Kimi Antonelli has a firm grasp on the drivers’ championship heading into the British Grand Prix.
George Russell regained second place in the F1 drivers’ championship following his win at the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg on Sunday.
Russell moved ahead of his former Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in drivers’ standings by six points. He sits 40 points behind his teammate and championship leader Antonelli.
Hamilton started the race in third but dropped to fifth thanks to a three-stop strategy from Ferrari. He now sits 46 points behind Antonelli.
Antonelli narrowly missed out on catching Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for second, but finished 0.3 seconds behind the four-time world champion in third.
Antonelli led the championship by as much as 66 points following the Monaco Grand Prix. He took control of the championship with a five-race win streak from the Chinese Grand Prix to Monaco. His streak came to an end at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix where he suffered an power unit failure in the closing stages of the race.
With 14 races left in the season, there’s plenty of time for the drivers’ championship to heat up.
The next five races presented a huge challenge for Antonelli during his rookie season in 2025. Of the five, the only times he scored points were a 10th-place finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix and a ninth-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix.
After winning the first race of the season in Australia, Russell has struggled through poor form, worse luck, and the rapid rise of his second-year teammate.
Russell finished behind Antonelli in three straight races following Australia. He seemed to have the upper-hand on Antonelli in a battle for the lead in Montreal, but retired with an power unit failure.
After qualifying in Monaco, while Antonelli took pole, Russell received a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. The team failed to serve the penalty correctly, so he was given a drive-through penalty which dropped him out of the points, while Antonelli won his fifth-straight race.
Hamilton’s fifth-place finish in Austria end a streak of three-straight podium finishes, including his first win with Ferrari in Barcelona. If Hamilton were to win the championship, he would stand alone as the driver with the most world titles with eight.
Hamilton holds the record for the most wins at Silverstone with nine. His most recent win there was in 2024 with Mercedes, when he snapped a winless streak dating back to the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Under the modern point system, Verstappen has the largest comeback in the drivers’ championship. He trailed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 46 points after the first three races in 2022. Verstappen took the lead in the championship following the sixth race of the season in Spain, eventually winning the title by 146 points over Leclerc.
Accounting for adjustments in the scoring system, James Hunt has the largest comeback in F1 history. Niki Lauda held a 23-point lead over Hunt with six races remaining in the 1976 season.
However, Lauda missed two races after suffering serious burns in a crash at the Nürburging. He held a three-point lead over Hunt entering the final race in Japan, but decided to withdraw on the second lap of the race due to heavy rain. Hunt finished the race in third, giving him the title by one point.
In 2025, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri held a 34-point lead over his teammate Lando Norris and an 104-point lead over Verstappen with nine races remaining. Norris would win the title by two points over Verstappen, while Piastri finished third.
Antonelli turns 20 on August 25. If he were to win the drivers’ championship, he would be the youngest world champion in F1 history, beating Sebastian Vettel, who won his first title in 2010 at 23 years and 133 days old.
