Kimi Antonelli will not switch to the No 1 for the 2027 Formula 1 season, choosing to keep the No 12 he carried to the 2026 world championship.
Antonelli became world champion in Mexico City after finishing third, with scenes of utter jubilation breaking out in Parc Ferme and later in the paddock.
Winning the world title comes with certain privileges, including the option to adorn the number one on their car for the following season.
Antonelli is the first to win the title in No 12 since Ayrton Senna in 1988, after the race, when asked whether he would take the champion’s number for next year, Antonelli said he would stay with 12.
His reasoning lay in keeping himself grounded and out of superstition.
“I’ll stay with number 12 because obviously it’s a very special number to me, but also that is a way for me to stay grounded and stay humble,” he said.
“I feel like by keeping number 12 it allows me to, yeah, just allows me to have a new point where to start and build on everything I get and trying to improve.
“And also, to be honest, I’m very superstitious that number one has never been a good number for me. Whenever I do this, it went extremely badly, so one more reason to stay with number 12. But yeah, I’ll stay with number 12.”
Kimi Antonelli wary of teammate challenge in 2027
Asked by Motorsport Week how far his season had been driven by those who doubted he was ready for F1 last year, Antonelli admitted the criticism had added “fuel to the fire”.
“It’s always good to shut off some of the noise, and of course I think in many ways it does help to add fuel to the fire, [that] some people said that I wasn’t ready for it, which at some point last year I probably looked like that I wasn’t ready for it,” he said.
“But I think last year, being able to experience those moments made me much more ready as well. Experiencing really low and difficult situations, high-pressure moments really helped me to face certain situations this year, and that made me mature a lot as a driver, as a person.
“And still this year, bad moments where I could have done better, a lot better, so yeah, it’s just a constant learning process. But I think last year, being able to race straight into Mercedes, obviously straight under the spotlight, made me grow much faster than if I would have gone to a [smaller team], I think, for example.”
Antonelli also expects teammate George Russell to come back stronger next year after a difficult season, and acknowledged Russell had suffered more bad luck than him.
“Definitely, I think he has had also bad luck at some point in the season. I think he’s had a little bit more than me, I’ll be honest,” he said. “I’ve also had my moments, in Silverstone, Barcelona. Also after Silverstone, we had to trash our PU because it had a problem in it and we had to take an earlier penalty, which was in Monza. So definitely, we’ve had our bad moments.
“But still, I think he will definitely come back. He’s super quick, he has shown this season that when he’s on, he’s very hard to beat. So it’s just about, on my side, keep focusing on myself, keep trying to raise the bar, keep improving, keep developing.
“Because I think it’s not going to be only a matter of George at the end of the season, but I think also for next season, Red Bull, especially with Max, Ferrari and [McLaren] eventually, we’re all going to be out there, and it’s going to be a tight fight. So it’s going to be important to be on top of the game, not only against my teammate but against also all the others.”
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