The 2026 F1 season is three rounds outdated, with the drivers having contested the Australian, Chinese and Japanese Grands Prix, with one Sprint thrown in for good measure.
But whereas there have been lots of overtakes, a number of shocks and one very younger Championship leader, there have additionally been some actually unusual stats thrown up from the opening three rounds – not least by mentioned chief, Kimi Antonelli…
Antonelli’s record-breaking feats
Antonelli is the youngest ever driver to lead the Formula 1 World Championship at simply 19 years of age. For context, the Italian was born on the August 25, 2006 – after Fernando Alonso had received his first title with Renault, and when he was properly on the method to his second.
Lewis Hamilton was 22 years outdated when he made his F1 debut in 2007 and was the earlier youngest driver to lead the Championship, with Antonelli eclipsing the seven-time World Champion by three years.
To put Antonelli’s achievements of profitable two races as a 19-year-old into but extra context, Max Verstappen received only one race as a teen – Spain 2016. By the time he received in Malaysia and Mexico in 2017, the Dutchman had turned 20.
As if that wasn’t sufficient, Antonelli is the first Italian to win back-to-back races since 1953 when Alberto Ascari achieved the feat. Ascari received the title in 1953 too…
The oldest podium in F1 historical past was in the inaugural season, when Nino Farina, Luigi Fagioli and Louis Rosier completed on the rostrum in Switzerland. They had a mixed age of over 140 years, or a mean of over 46 years.
Contrast that to Japan, when Antonelli, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc may solely muster a mixed age of slightly below 73 years on the podium, or a mean of simply over 24 years.
Before we transfer away from the Mercedes prospect, yet one more attention-grabbing factor to notice from the first three rounds of the season is that Antonelli has acheived back-to-back wins in his profession earlier than George Russell.
Hamilton’s return to the rostrum
Onto Hamilton, who managed to obtain his first podium for Ferrari in Shanghai at the twenty sixth time of asking, having not made it onto the rostrum in his first season with the Scuderia. By distinction, his first podium with McLaren in his rookie yr took only one race – he completed third on debut in Australia.
And as for his Mercedes file, Hamilton made it to the podium in simply his second race with the Silver Arrows.
McLaren’s preliminary 2026 problem
Over to final yr’s World Champions McLaren, who’ve had a topsy-turvy begin to the new season. Piastri was unable to begin both of the first two Grands Prix, after crashing on his way to the grid in Australia, earlier than {an electrical} problem stopped him beginning in China.
The final driver to fail to begin two consecutive races? Bruce McLaren again in 1969 in the US and Mexico. So Piastri is in good firm, though he was probably relieved to keep away from the hat-trick when he managed to not simply begin the race in Japan, however lead on the opening lap for good measure.
Lando Norris didn’t begin in China both – the final time McLaren didn’t get both automotive to the lights was Indianapolis in 2005. And talking of that race, when 4 automobiles failed to begin in Shanghai, that was the most since 16 automobiles didn’t begin in Indianapolis.
Verstappen’s sluggish begin
Moving onto four-time World Champion Max Verstappen, and his opening three outcomes seem unfamiliar contemplating his success in recent times: sixth in Australia, a DNF in China and eighth in Japan.
This is the worst begin he has had to a season as a Red Bull driver since 2022, when he failed to end two of the first three races with reliability points – however he did no less than win the different in a aggressive automotive that carried him to the championship that season.
It is the first time since 2018 that the Dutchman has not completed on the podium in a single of the first three rounds, and he’s ninth in the Drivers’ Championship, under Ollie Bearman and Pierre Gasly.
Speaking of Gasly, the Frenchman has scored in the first three Grands Prix of a season for the first time, ending tenth, sixth and seventh. Contrast that to his season at Red Bull, when he completed eleventh, eighth and sixth in his first three races.
