'Why Kimi Antonelli's F1 championship lead is under threat'

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After winning the six opening races this season, Mercedes don't hold the same air of dominance with both Ferrari drivers taking victories and McLaren's Lando Norris winning last time out in Hungary. Max Verstappen has also shown signs of improvement in the Red Bull, finishing on the podium in three out of the last four races.

Ben Hunt, GPblog's lead columnist, pointed out to Verstappen's incredible comeback in 2025 as a reason as to why Antonelli can lose the championship this season, with a chance of other teams taking enough points off him.

He said: "We saw last year when Verstappen overturned that 104 point lead that he had (to overcome) in the championship, to miss out on the title by two points. It was testament to Verstappen's ability, Red Bull's ability, but also the other element was McLaren stuffing it up a little bit by not preferring one driver over the other and that ultimately cost them points.

Antonelli, during a mixed debut season, suffered a wobble during the middle stages of the campaign, scoring points in just two out of nine races between the Emilia Romagna and Dutch Grand Prix.

Hunt said it is important how Antonelli recovers this season from any potential wobble at a race. He also highlighted the competitiveness of the field in 2026, with Antonelli, Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris winning in the last five races.

He said: "We saw him (Antonelli) last year have a little bit of a wobble. It depends on how he recovers. He didn't win this one we've had five winners in five races. This is exactly what we want, it means that everyone's competitive, all those five drivers at least are competitive so they're going to be taking points off each other and that's exactly what we want to see."