Kimi Antonelli has become Italy's first Formula One world champion since the 1950s, ending a 73-year wait for the nation. The 20-year-old secured the title in his second year in the sport, a remarkable achievement that has corrected one of F1's strangest anomalies.
A Historic Title Win
Nino Farina was F1's first ever champion in 1950, and Alberto Ascari's successes in 1952 and '53 made it three from four for Italian drivers. Since then, no Italian has managed to claim the title until now.
Riccardo Patrese and Michele Alboreto were both multiple race-winners who finished runner-up in the championship, but both were a long way off the title-winners in those years. More recently, Giancarlo Fisichella managed three wins despite spending almost all his career with decent but non-title-winning teams.
Why Italy Waited So Long
Motorsport historian Elizabeth Blackstock says the stars have not aligned for Italian drivers at the highest level. "So much of your ability to have success in F1 has to do with being in the right place at the right time," she told Express Sport.
"Italy has had good drivers, but there's always been someone who was dominant. There's always been a team, when a driver came in, that was outshining every team they ended up on. And it's crazy, but that is just kind of the way Formula One works."
Antonio Giovinazzi, one of Italy's most recent F1 drivers, is a prime example. He is a 24 Hours of Le Mans winner with Ferrari, but all 62 of his F1 starts between 2017 and 2021 came for minnows Alfa Romeo-Sauber. Blackstock said: "Tonio ended up in Formula One at a time when there wasn't a good seat available to him and so he wasn't able to make that step up to a top level team."
The Perfect Storm for Antonelli
Blackstock believes Antonelli's success comes from a combination of factors. "With Kimi Antonelli, we kind of have this perfect storm of a really strong young driver who happens to get into a car that suits his driving style, at a time when we had a rules change that works with how he competes. Everything has kind of fallen into place for him."
There are plenty of other factors, including the fact most F1 teams were set up or moved to the UK over time, whereas Italy had been the real motorsport power in the 1950s with Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Maserati all shining. There is also a culture of motorcycle riding and racing in Italy which has diluted the talent pool. The 500cc motorbike world championship, known as MotoGP since 2002, has been won by Italian riders 22 times, with Valentino Rossi earning god-like status for his seven titles.
Ferrari's Role in the Drought
Founder Enzo Ferrari fielded Ascari in those two title-winning seasons, but later became reluctant to hire Italian drivers. Ascari was one of several Italian racers, along with Eugenio Castellotti, Luigi Musso and Lorenzo Bandini, to die in the 1950s and '60s while driving a Ferrari car. Ferrari's New York Times obituary in 1988 noted that the Italian press referred to him as 'Saturn', the devourer of children, as a result of so many driver deaths.
Blackstock thinks there is another reason why Italians haven't thrived racing for the Scuderia. She said: "When you add the extra layer of an Italian driver representing an Italian team, that pressure becomes even more intense. So I'm not surprised that Ferrari hasn't made it happen. Ferrari has traditionally wanted to see a very successful driver immediately. And when you're an Italian driver, if you're not immediately performing, there's this extra scrutiny."
Whether Antonelli one day gets his chance to race in Ferrari red remains to be seen. But he is already an Italian hero through what he has achieved this season, even if it was in a Mercedes car. This was supposed to be George Russell's year, but the Brit has struggled to get the best out of his machine while Antonelli has had no such issues.
Six-time F1 race-winner Patrese thinks the stars have aligned for Antonelli this year. He said: "To be a super champion, you also need the luck of a super champion. This season, everything has been on Kimi's side, apart from his talent, which is prominent. Kimi is stronger than Russell, but Russell has also had a lot of really bad luck."
With Antonelli's entire career still ahead, the hope is the wait between titles for Italian drivers will be much shorter than 73 years this time.
