Kimi Antonelli keeps hand-washing his Mercedes before every race

Kimi Antonelli, the Formula 1 world champion, still washes his Mercedes by hand before every race. The enthusiast’s ritual accompanies an unusually rapid rise: he passed his driving test at 18, by which time he was already on the Formula 1 grid while still at school.

His first lessons behind the wheel came from his father, Marco. Antonelli learned to drive a manual gearbox in a Fiat Scudo, then passed his test in a Volkswagen Golf. His connection with cars, then, extends beyond his work as a racing driver; it took root early in his life.

The champion takes his time when cleaning his car. He says it needs to be washed properly and then dried carefully: if water is left behind, the bodywork can look dirty to him. He also cleans the interior and always prefers washing by hand to using an automatic car wash. Antonelli says he likes seeing his cars clean and regards looking after them as something he enjoys, as well as part of his routine.

That enthusiasm also surfaced in a more celebratory moment. Recalling his first company car, an AMG GT Coupé 63 with 585 horsepower, Antonelli said that as soon as he received it, he went to see his classmates and take them for a drive. “What made me happiest was seeing how excited they were,” he recalled.

He also says he tries to keep up ordinary habits, even when that is not easy. “Going to the supermarket, going to the cinema… it’s more difficult, but I still do it,” he explained. He also likes meeting friends at a pub to watch racing, tennis or other sports, or to go bowling. His father, Marco, summed up Antonelli’s enthusiasm for cars by saying he could “spend all his money on cars”.

The driver’s career offers another measure of his early progress. Antonelli surpassed the previous F1 precocity record by three years. Marca describes him as the youngest champion in the discipline’s history and a new favourite in Italy, to which he has supposedly restored glory 73 years after Alberto Ascari’s last Italian title—with the qualification that Mario Andretti was born in Italy but competed under the American flag.

His first years with a driving licence have not been free of scares. Antonelli has had a few incidents in his two years with a licence. The most serious came just before the season that crowned him: he crashed his AMG GT 63 PRO 4MATIC+ “Motorsport Collectors Edition”, a model limited to 200 examples, on a motorway in San Marino. There were no serious consequences.

His title has come in a season that is still under way: after 19 of 23 rounds, Antonelli has 380 points and nine wins, leading Max Verstappen, second on 261, by 119 points. Four races remain. Mercedes also leads the constructors’ standings on 630 points, ahead of Ferrari on 504. Amid that campaign, the hand-washing remains a personal ritual, far removed from lap times and standings.