Kimi Antonelli makes TIME 100 after Monaco streak

TIME has named Kimi Antonelli to its first-ever list of the 100 most influential people in sports after the Mercedes rookie extended his Formula 1 championship lead with a fifth straight victory at Monaco.

Antonelli, 19, was placed in the magazine’s “Leaders” category, with TIME describing him as the current leader of the F1 world championship and pointing to a run of five wins in the last five grands prix. For a driver in his first full season, the recognition underlines how quickly he has moved beyond being Mercedes’ pick to replace Lewis Hamilton and into the center of the 2026 title fight.

TIME framed that rise through the records Antonelli has already set. It called him the youngest driver ever to lead the Formula 1 championship and said he had joined Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna as the only drivers to claim their first three pole positions consecutively. Unlike those two champions, TIME noted, Antonelli also won all three of those races.

His qualifying run has stretched even further than that. The summaries cited by TIME say Antonelli took pole in five consecutive races, starting in China and Japan in March, then Miami and Canada in May, and Monaco in June.

The scale of the attention around him now is no longer limited to the paddock. An article published on June 10 said Antonelli’s Monaco result pushed him onto the front pages of Italy’s mainstream newspapers, with Corriere della Sera, la Repubblica, La Stampa, Il Messaggero, Il Mattino, Il Giornale and Il Secolo XIX all giving him prominent space. Gazzetta dello Sport, Corriere dello Sport, Tuttosport and Quotidiano Sportivo devoted their entire front pages to the win.

That surge in attention is exactly what Mercedes has tried to manage. Toto Wolff, Mercedes team principal, urged Italian media to keep expectations under control after Antonelli’s Monte Carlo podium, telling Sky Italia: “Don’t make too much noise for him there in Italy, let’s continue with a lot of humility.”

With five consecutive wins, a growing championship advantage and recognition from a mainstream U.S. publication, Antonelli’s rookie season is no longer just a promising start. It is reshaping the 2026 Formula 1 title picture and turning Mercedes’ teenager into one of the sport’s biggest global figures.