{"id":896624,"date":"2026-09-18T14:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T14:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896624\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T14:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T14:26:18","slug":"max-verstappen-jokes-about-kimi-antonellis-f1-lead-im-definitely-not-having-a-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896624\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen jokes about Kimi Antonelli\u2019s F1 lead: \u201cI\u2019m definitely not having a comeback!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

With eight or nine race weekends remaining \u2013 depending on what happens with the grands\u00a0prix in the Middle East at the end of the year \u2013 Kimi Antonelli<\/a> is in pole position to claim his maiden Formula 1 world title, which would also see him replace Sebastian Vettel<\/a> as the youngest world champion ever.<\/p>\n

Following Antonelli\u2019s victory in Madrid, team-mate George Russell<\/a> can no longer become world champion in a scenario where the Briton wins every race and Antonelli consistently finishes second. In other words, Russell no longer has it entirely in his own hands, which led him to tell the media on Sunday that he feels he is no longer in the fight.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Antonelli, for his part, does not yet want to think about a possible world title and, despite it being a cliche, that is exactly the mindset the young Italian should have according to those who know what it takes, Max Verstappen<\/a> and Lando Norris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When both drivers were asked what advice they would give Antonelli for the decisive weeks of the season, the Mercedes<\/a> driver himself immediately jumped in: \u201cWell, I think they will hope for a comeback!\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen, however, quickly joked in response: \u201cI\u2019m definitely not having a comeback!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen finished on the podium behind Kimi Antonelli in Spain<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bloxham \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Last year, Verstappen did manage to overturn a sizeable deficit by finishing on the podium in every grand prix after the summer break, but the Dutchman knows that the reality is completely different this time. Verstappen can only aim for a potential race win now. Should he fail to win a grand prix this year, it would be the first time since his debut season in 2015 that he hasn\u2019t taken to the top step of the podium.<\/p>\n

As for his advice to Antonelli, Verstappen said the Mercedes driver should mainly continue in the same way, without looking at the championship standings too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cKimi just needs to do what he\u2019s doing. I mean, it\u2019s fantastic, it\u2019s working really well\u201d, Verstappen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should not stress about it too much, which I don\u2019t think he is. He\u2019s just delivering, he\u2019s confident, and he\u2019s getting more and more experience. He\u2019s still young and he\u2019s still very early in his career, but he\u2019s already flying. It\u2019s just working.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe shouldn\u2019t overcomplicate things and he\u2019s not doing that. He has a lot of good people around him that know what he needs, so it\u2019s all working well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lando <\/p>\n

Lando Norris said Kimi Antonelli doesn’t need any advice<\/p>\n

Photo by: Andy Hone\/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

According to Norris, Antonelli\u2019s rivals should not give him any more useful advice, as the 20-year-old Italian will be a formidable opponent in the fight for the world title not only this year, but also in the seasons to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s leading by 80 points because he\u2019s doing an incredible job. He\u2019s beating a much more experienced team-mate, and a decent team-mate, so I don\u2019t want to give him any advice because he\u2019s doing a scarily good job \u2013 and he just turned 20. Pretty phenomenal\u201d, the McLaren<\/a> driver said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s cool to see someone so young doing such an incredible job and more than likely go on and win the championship. He\u2019s been impressive since the first race this year, very few mistakes. He\u2019s not driving like it\u2019s his second year in F1, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be many, many more years of us battling and I\u2019m excited for more. Hopefully this year already, and I\u2019m excited for all of us to race more in the future too. I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With eight or nine race weekends remaining \u2013 depending on what happens with the grands\u00a0prix in the Middle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[12295,64,63,817,813,816,254733,825,465673,945,946,254732,85],"class_list":["post-896624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-madring","tag-max-verstappen","tag-max-verstappen-jokes-about-kimi-antonelliu2019s-f1-lead-u201ciu2019m-definitely-not-having-a-comebacku201d","tag-mercedes","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-spanish-gp","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}