Antonelli's maiden F1 title in Mexico nearly ended by a cracked sump four laps from glory

Kimi Antonelli secured his first Formula 1 world championship in Mexico City, but the celebration almost never happened. Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord has revealed that Antonelli’s W17 developed a cracked sump in the final laps of the race, flooding the floor of the car in oil and pushing the engine to the edge of failure.

“We got the car back after the race and took the floor off the bottom, covered in oil,” Lord said on the High Performance podcast. “The sump cracked and Kimi said he thinks about four laps to the end he could feel the engine just starting to struggle. So, he was right on the edge of retirement of the race and yet it held together.”

Antonelli, who became the first Italian driver to win the Formula 1 world championship, kept his composure as the power unit began to falter, managing the issue through to the chequered flag. It was a fitting final test of the maturity he had demonstrated throughout the season.

Mathematically, Antonelli would likely have retained the title even had he been forced to retire. For Lewis Hamilton to keep the championship fight alive, he would have needed to win the race — a task made near-impossible by an MGU-K power limitation on the main straight that effectively prevented overtaking beyond a certain speed threshold. Verstappen, running ahead, was not passed.

Still, the circumstances of the title’s confirmation gave the moment an added dimension. Antonelli celebrated on the podium alongside Hamilton and Verstappen, the two most decorated drivers of the modern era, who lifted the new champion onto their shoulders in a scene that immediately took on an iconic quality.

The image of the three drivers together — a combined tally of world titles spanning two decades of the sport — is already being described within the paddock as one of the defining photographs in Formula 1 history.