Sao Paulo (AFP) – A week after the coronation of its driver Kimi Antonelli, the youngest world champion in F1 history, the Mercedes team can win the constructor's title this weekend at the Brazilian GP, which will also see Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell fight for second place in the standings.
Published on: 06/11/2026 - 08:44
The German team led by Austrian Toto Wolff is 126 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors' World Championship, and will be crowned if it scores three points more than its Italian rival on Sunday.
Antonelli and his British teammate George Russell can bring him a ninth title after those from 2014 to 2021, at the end of the 20th round of the season at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, designated by its original name "Interlagos" in Sao Paulo.
“All I can promise is that for the rest of this season, and next, I will give everything to return to the performances that I have been capable of most of the time in my career,” said Russell, 28, completely outplayed this season by Antonelli, 20, as evidenced by his disappointing sixth place in Mexico on Sunday and his fall to fourth in the provisional standings (250 points).
With four GPs (Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi) remaining at the end of the season - if those in the Gulf take place, depending on the military situation in the Middle East - Russell is ahead of his compatriot with seven world crowns, Lewis Hamilton (259 pts), and by the Dutchman Max Verstappen (261) who has four (2021-2024) and is making a spectacular comeback at the end of the season.
Russell's self-criticism
Russell, considered favorite for the title at the start of the season, was self-critical and congratulated his Italian teammate and rival, while "crossing his fingers that luck will return a little", while he suffered a series of blows of fate and mechanical damage to his Mercedes.
Antonelli won nine Grands Prix, in his second season in F1, and was third in Mexico, becoming the youngest world champion in the history of this discipline and the first Italian since Alberto Ascari's coronation in 1953.
The image of the young man with the face of an adolescent, carried in triumph on the podium in Mexico by the "veterans" Hamilton (41 years old) and Verstappen (29 years old) has gone around the world.
“I’m going to have this photo framed and hang it in my house, it’s an incredible moment,” Antonelli gushed.
He had been spotted, chosen and looked after by the Mercedes F1 industry and Toto Wolff, who admitted having "let down George (Russell) who deserves to be able to fight for a better place".
“Quiet or double”
Sao Paulo will also be the opportunity to decide between the two Ferraris of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc (fifth, 245 points) after having risked a collision at the start of the race in Mexico, the Englishman accusing the Monegasque of having played "double or nothing".
Verstappen took advantage of the fratricidal fight between the red cars to win his third victory of the year in four races, thanks to the Red Bulls in full rebirth, which also benefits the young Frenchman Isack Hadjar (eighth, 107 points).
He will be keen to secure his place as vice-world champion, as in 2025.
The F1 tour on the American continent is shaken by the definitive sidelining of Frenchman Esteban Ocon by the American team Haas, after rumors of an altercation with its Japanese director Ayao Komatsu.
The thirty-year-old from Normandy is replaced in Brazil by the 21-year-old local beginner, Rafael Camara from the Ferrari sector, engine manufacturer for Haas.
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© 2026 AFP
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