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F1 legend Riccardo Patrese has urged Kimi Antonelli to avoid missing out on the current ‘golden opportunity’ that he finds himself in amid the 2026 F1 title fight, highlighting Oscar Piastri’s fall from the top during the 2025 campaign.
Despite leading the championship standings for the majority of the 2025 F1 season, Oscar Piastri’s campaign unravelled during a mistake-ridden streak when it mattered most. Lando Norris capitalised and wrote his name in the history books in Piastri’s place.
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Kimi Antonelli finds himself in a similar position this year, though there is still much to be done before his name is etched onto the world drivers’ championship trophy.
He currently holds a strong lead at the top of the F1 standings after a record-breaking start to the season, which saw him claim four consecutive wins to open up his Grand Prix victory account in the sport.
However, there are still 17 race weekends to go, and a multitude of points are yet to be claimed. As Italy hopes for its first world champion since 1953, one of its most recent race winners has offered some words of wisdom.
Riccardo Patrese urges Kimi Antonelli not to let the 2026 F1 title ‘slip away’
In a recent appearance on the Fuori Campo Parole di Sport podcast, former F1 driver Riccardo Patrese outlined how Antonelli simply must take his current opportunity of winning a world championship, due to the fact that another challenge cannot be guaranteed.
“Kimi, he’s got a golden opportunity this year,” he began. “Let’s hope, actually, I won’t even say ‘hope’… He absolutely must make it happen.”
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The six-time Grand Prix winner then highlighted how close Piastri got to winning the title last year, only to be without much of a hope of securing one in 2026.
“Piastri from last year, I think, will be kicking himself this year, because everyone assumed that McLaren might have some consistency and so he might have a chance of winning the world championship this year,” the Italian continued.
“But I really don’t think so, and so it’s not a given that Mercedes will have this superiority and this opportunity again next year. So, it’s a chance that sometimes comes round only once, and so it’s best to seize it, not let it slip away.”
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The most recent Canadian Grand Prix bears some similarities to one of the biggest flash points of Piastri’s title fight with eventual champion Lando Norris in 2025.
The Briton’s retirement from the Dutch Grand Prix last year saw Piastri take a commanding 34-point lead in the F1 standings with 10 races to go. Of course, he wouldn’t go on to hold that lead, as a series of mistakes saw Norris win the title, while Piastri slipped down to P3.
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