Kimi Antonelli gives hilarious response over breaking Sebastian Vettel's F1 title record

The chances of Antonelli becoming world champion this weekend are admittedly slim - the Italian needs to win the US GP, and hope his teammate George Russell finishes P9 or lower, while Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton finishes fifth or lower. Nevertheless, Antonelli is in an almost unassailable position to win the championship in 2026.

Coming into the Austin weekend, Antonelli leads Russell by 102 points, with a further nine points on Hamilton, who is P3 in the Drivers' standings. It is seemingly, then, a matter of when and not if, with Antonelli set to become the youngest-ever F1 world champion at 20 years of age.

The man whose record Antonelli will surely beat is that of former Red Bull driver Vettel, who secured his first of four world titles in 2010 at 23 years old, three years older than the Mercedes youngster. Asked whether he remembered the moment Vettel became world champion, Antonelli said he could not, apologising because he was only four years old.

"I don't remember that, when I was four years old. Yeah, I'm sorry. I remember, I was playing with Hot Wheels, but I don't remember him clinching it," Antonelli said during Thursday's driver press conference.

Sat next to seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, Antonelli said he did eventually watch Vettel's dramatic Abu Dhabi win 16 years ago.

Asked when it first dawned on him that he could break Vettel's record, Antonelli admitted it was not until fairly recently, but has always kept the mindset that he can compete for victories every weekend.

"Obviously, I'm in an incredible position," the 20-year-old said. "This year, with how things went and how I felt in the car during the weekends, and also with the momentum going, I thought I might have had a chance this year to fight. Luckily, I'm in a very good position right now.