Right after the race Antonelli said, quoted by the official F1 website: “I’m speechless. I’m about to cry, to be honest. Thank you so much to my team, because they helped me to achieve this dream.” His 2026 season started strongly, he qualified second for the season opener in Australia and finished also second. In China he led almost from start to finish with only one small mistake in turn 14.

“I’m super happy. I said yesterday I really wanted to bring Italy back on top and we did today, even though I gave myself a little bit of a heart attack towards the end with the flat spot. It was a good race.” he commented. Antonelli became the first Italian to win a Grand Prix in more than 20 years.

Despite the great race from his side, he struggled a bit at the start: “It was not an easy start. Probably I covered a bit too much on the inside and gave too much room to the Ferrari. At the end the pace was good and we managed to bring it home.” He tried to cover his teammate George Russell on the inside but allowed Lewis Hamilton with Ferrari to go from third to the lead. But Antonelli overtook Hamilton and was leading the race again in lap 2.

Antonelli joined Mercedes as a rookie in 2025 replacing Lewis Hamilton after single season in Formula 2 despite some doubts from critics. He had a mixed debut season as he suffered a tough mid-season that put him under pressure. But he managed to get a pole position for the Miami sprint race and added Grand Prix podiums in Canada and Brazil.