Nico Rosberg calls Kimi Antonelli the ‘ultimate underdog’ despite leading the 2026 F1 championship

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Former Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has labelled Kimi Antonelli as the ‘ultimate underdog’ despite the Italian being the current leader of the world championship.

Antonelli, 19, has enjoyed a flying start to the 2026 Formula 1 season, having won back-to-back races in China and Japan.

As a result, the young Italian leads Mercedes teammate George Russell by nine points in the world championship standings.

Ahead of next month’s Miami Grand Prix, Antonelli has now emerged as the favourite to win the 2026 world title.

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Nico Rosberg labels Kimi Antonelli as the ‘ultimate underdog’

Despite leading the race to become world champion and putting in commanding performances on the track, ex-Mercedes star Rosberg has labelled Antonelli as an underdog.

During an appearance on Bloomberg Tech, Rosberg spoke about Antonelli being the ‘ultimate underdog’ in F1. 

He said: “What an amazing story we have, 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli, the ultimate underdog, is leading this world championship three races in.

“That’s wonderful. He has so many fans. Even yesterday at the conference here in San Francisco. Loads of Mercedes and Kimi Antonelli fans as I was walking up on stage, so it’s nice to see.”

READ MORE: Mercedes staff do not see George Russell as 2026 title favourite as Kimi Antonelli making difference

Nico Rosberg addresses ‘awkward’ problem with 2026 regulations

Speaking about the new regulations, Rosberg, who retired from the sport after winning the 2016 world title, admitted that he understands why the superclipping issue can be ‘awkward’ for spectators.

He explained: “There is a lot of criticism at the moment because you can see like at the last race, they go down the straight through a flat out bend, and have to downshift after the bend while still on the straight because the battery power switches off.

“So, from a spectator’s point of view, it can be a bit awkward when you’re supposed to be going flat out with the highest-performing F1 car. Nevertheless, I am easy-going on that, from my point of view, as long as there are great battles between teams and other teams.

“Hopefully, Ferrari can use this gap now to close up to Mercedes; McLaren were there already at the last race. If we get a really cool battle there, then I think the fans won’t care about the technology.”