Croft backs Antonelli to become younger F1 champion than Verstappen after Monza masterclass

Kimi Antonelli extended his Formula 1 championship lead to 66 points over Mercedes team-mate George Russell with a drive from 19th on the grid to victory at the Italian Grand Prix, prompting Sky Sports F1 lead commentator David Croft to declare the 20-year-old will become a younger world champion than Max Verstappen.

Antonelli’s win at Monza made him the first Italian driver to triumph at the circuit in 60 years and was his seventh victory of the season. It came ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, where the young Mercedes driver will look to consolidate his commanding position at the top of the standings.

Appearing on the Sky Sports F1 Show, Croft drew a direct comparison between Antonelli’s rise and Verstappen’s early career. Verstappen made his F1 debut at 17, won his first race at 18, and claimed his first championship at 24. Croft argued Antonelli is hitting each of those milestones even earlier.

“He’s doing things earlier than Max,” Croft said. “He’s going to be a younger world champion than Max was. He is a younger polesitter. He is a younger grand prix winner. He’s getting everything done very, very early indeed and showing a lot of maturity with it.”

Croft also pointed to the emotional growth Antonelli has shown over the past 12 months. “12 months ago he was at Monza and was just coming out of a very difficult period where, from the podium in Canada, things had started to go wrong,” he explained. “He was working really hard with Bono [Peter Bonnington] to try and put things right and then went on a really good run towards the end of the season.”

The commentator was emphatic about what sets Antonelli apart from other prodigious talents. “It’s one thing to have an ability, it’s another to have that controlled ability and to start being very mature at an age where I think all three of us can agree we certainly wouldn’t have been capable of doing anything near what Kimi Antonelli is doing.”

Antonelli first moved to the top of the drivers’ standings after back-to-back wins in China and Japan, and has since added four more victories before the summer break. Should he go on to claim the title, he would need to do so before the age of 23 years and 134 days to surpass Sebastian Vettel as the youngest F1 champion in history — a record Vettel set when he won his first title in 2010.