Formula 1 has just wrapped up its weekend in Singapore, and after night under the floodlights, the championship battle grows tighter and tighter. While the title is still up for grabs, only one of the six Grand Prix winners this season will be champion. And of these six, a 20 year old kid from Bologna, Italy, seems to be the most likely candidate.<\/p>\n
The championship as it stands after Singapore<\/p>\n
After the waving of the checkered flag on Sunday night, the points were awarded to the top 10 drivers of the weekend. Following the F1 point distribution (25 pts to 1st, 18pts to 2nd, and so on), Kimi Antonelli remains on top of the standings with a total of 340 points, with second place being taken by teammate George Russell, amounting to 238 points. The standings are as follows:<\/p>\n
Kimi Antonelli \u2013 340<\/p>\n
George Russell \u2013 238<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton \u2013 229<\/p>\n
Max Verstappen \u2013 221<\/p>\n
Charles Leclerc \u2013 215<\/p>\n
Lando Norris \u2013 201<\/p>\n
On the surface, Antonelli is the obvious choice for who will win the championship, but as is the nature of F1, nothing is ever predictable. Though the Italian is over 100 points ahead of his nearest competitor, the championship could still be claimed by any of his rivals. But the possibility of F1 having a new champion as early as the next race is very real, and this is what needs to happen for the Mercedes driver to become champion in the rolling hills of Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n
Where Kimi needs to finish in Austin and what needs to happen behind him<\/p>\n
For the current leader, the task is simple: win! Winning in Austin secures the maximum amount of points possible for the weekend, and creates the greatest distance between himself and his rivals. If he can execute, then the only thing standing in his way will be where his competitors finish as they cross the finish line.<\/p>\n
With a victory from Kimi, George Russell, his teammate and closest in points, needs to finish anywhere in the top 9 to take the fight to Mexico. Lewis Hamilton anywhere in the top 5 could keep his title hopes alive. The lone Red Bull of Max Verstappen needs to finish next to Antonelli, in 2nd. Leclerc and Norris would be out of contention entirely with a win by the Mercedes man. If all falls into place, Kimi Antonelli is champion of the world.<\/p>\n
What an Antonelli championship would mean for the world of F1<\/p>\n
If the #12 Mercedes crosses the line first and his competition fails to catch up, it will be a party in the Lone Star State. Kimi would be the youngest champion in F1 history at age 20, taking the record from Sebastian Vettel, who won it at 23 years old in 2010. He would also be the first Italian champion since Alberto Ascari, who won back-to-back titles in 1952 and 1953. It would also be the third time Austin has been the deciding race for the championship, with Lewis Hamilton securing his wins in 2015 and 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 has just wrapped up its weekend in Singapore, and after night under the floodlights, the championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,158852,3,21,133794,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-878878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-grand-prix","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}