Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Lionel Messi made a surprise visit to the Miami Grand Prix and capped it by congratulating Mercedes winner Kimi Antonelli after the 19-year-old converted pole into his third straight Formula 1 victory.
Antonelli was the main story on track at the Miami International Autodrome, backing up his third successive Grand Prix pole position with another win to extend his championship lead over Mercedes team mate George Russell to 20 points after four rounds. But the paddock’s biggest off-track shift came when Messi arrived unannounced with his family and quickly became a focal point once he was spotted.
Cameras that would usually stay fixed on cars and drivers turned toward the football legend instead, and one of the most widely shared moments came from Mercedes’ garage, where Messi was shown sitting in an F1 car. The team later summed up the day on social media as “Miami magic. An unforgettable day.”
Messi’s visit also produced a notable meeting with Argentine driver Franco Colapinto. Fans circulated footage and photos of Messi embracing Colapinto and greeting his family, turning a brief paddock encounter into one of the day’s most discussed scenes online.
The timing gave the visit extra weight because Antonelli delivered again under pressure. After a tricky getaway from pole, he had to fight through wheel-to-wheel moments with Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris before taking the chequered flag first for a third consecutive Grand Prix win.
Back in Mercedes hospitality after the race, Antonelli returned exhausted from the conditions. In a video shared by the team, the Mercedes driver said, “It was tough. So hot. So humid.” He added that his hard-tyre stint felt endless: “At some points, I looked at the screen when I was on hard, I saw 20 laps left. I was like, ‘No, I just want this race to be over’.”
As he walked in to cheers from the team, Messi approached him to offer congratulations, giving Mercedes a crossover moment that carried beyond the race result itself.
Antonelli kept the focus on what the victory means for his season. “This is just the beginning; the road is still long,” he said after the race. “But we’re working super hard, the team is doing an incredible job, and without them I wouldn’t be here, so it’s mainly thanks to them, my family. I’m going to enjoy this one and then get back to work.”
That combination of another clinical Antonelli win and Messi’s unexpected appearance left Miami with a broader reach than a normal race weekend, while Mercedes heads to Canada with its young driver now firmly in control of the championship fight.