{"id":950685,"date":"2026-11-03T05:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T05:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950685\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T05:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T05:10:15","slug":"kimi-antonelli-rejects-coveted-1-for-f1-world-title-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950685\/","title":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli rejects coveted #1 for F1 world title defence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/AUT-26-J31_5351.jpg\" class=\"sc-hero-img\" alt=\"Why Antonelli won\u2019t take #1 for F1 title defence\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKimi Antonelli: Jayce Illman\/Pro Star Pics<\/p>\n<p>The 20-year-old revealed his decision in the aftermath of securing his maiden crown with a third place finish in the Mexican Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p>Antonelli has raced with #12 throughout his single-seater career, apart from his 2024 campaign in Formula 2.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian\u2019s preference means #1 will be absent from the F1 grid for the first time since 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll stay with #12 because, obviously, it\u2019s a very special number for me, but also it\u2019s a way for me to stay grounded, to stay humble,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like by keeping #12 it allows me to have a new point where to start and build on everything again and try to improve.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlso, to be honest, I\u2019m very superstitious, and #1 has never been a good number for me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhenever I put it [on], it went extremely badly, so one more reason to stay with #12.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Antonelli\u2019s triumph was the first world title for a driver sporting #12 since his idol Ayrton Senna in 1988.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian revealed in Mexico City that he\u2019ll wear a Senna tribute helmet at the upcoming Brazilian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli: Jayce Illman\/Pro Star Pics The 20-year-old revealed his decision in the aftermath of securing his maiden&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,10115,85],"class_list":["post-950685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950685","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=950685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}