Article by Finley Ever
I’ve noticed in these past two years of Italian Kimi Antonelli being a Formula One driver, specifically this year, that everyone seems to follow up or start talking about his success with mentioning how young he is. While he has accomplished many great things at such a young age, which should be celebrated, I don’t feel like there’s a need to mention how young he is while doing so every single time.
There seems to be a trend in culture, whether it be music, film, or sports, that if a star is achieving great things while also being exceptionally young for doing so, everyone has to bring up their age.
Take Olivia Rodrigo for example, the pop-rock superstar released her smash hit single “Drivers License” when she was just 17-years-old. Naturally, coming out with such a popular song at such a young age garnered plenty of attention, but instead of critics and fans alike simply praising her for her success and brilliant song-writing skills, every article and post about Rodrigo was littered and laced with comments about how young she was to do so; so, when her second studio album ‘GUTS’ came out, the final song on the album, Teenage Dream, became popular for containing the line “When am I going to stop being great for my age and just start being good?”
Solely basing a star’s identity off of their age is fine to mention once or twice, because what they’re accomplishing is truly remarkable feats, but once they reach a certain level of stardom, the urge to be treated as equals with those older than them starts to creep in. Just being viewed as talented and not ‘young talent’ is probably very extreme in some cases, such as Rodrigo’s.
And in the F1 world, Kimi Antonelli is faced with this exact problem, whether he realizes it or not.
Kimi is 20 years old, and while he was the youngest on the grid last year, he isn’t anymore with 19-year-old Arvid Lindblad coming in as a rookie at the start of the 2026 season, but for some odd reason, it seems to me like Kimi is still being viewed as the ‘baby’ of the sport. Leading the Drivers World Championship is a privilege for any driver, regardless of age, but since Antonelli is so young doing so, that seems to be all people can talk about.
The commentators will randomly say things such as ‘the teenager’ or ‘the young Italian’, and it feels to me like people aren’t recognizing him just for his talent, but for him being so young to drive so good, if that makes sense.
While it is important to praise Kimi for his success, he is an adult now, so we should view him as such. If I was in Kimi’s shoes, the need to prove myself as more than just the ‘child prodigy’ would be extreme. So instead of just acknowledging him for being great for his age, we should just think of him as a brilliant driver! Because what he is achieving is amazing for any driver of any age.
Arvid Lindblad, who technically is younger than the leader of the WDC, also deserves more recognition. The 2026 rookie has made it to Q3 for qualifying 10 times this year, as well as finishing in 6th at the Monaco Grand Prix.
To sum this all up, we should be able to give credit where credit is due without mentioning how young they are and that being the reason why they should receive that credit, because regardless of age, the things Kimi Antonelli is accomplishing will go down in history. While some things may be because of age, he genuinely is a fantastic driver despite only being 20, so we need to acknowledge that!
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