Nico Rosberg has warned Kimi Antonelli that while he may be cruising to a first world title, the tables could be turned by rivals McLaren and Ferrari, which would ramp up the pressure on his shoulders.
Antonelli holds an 81-point lead over his teammate George Russell in the drivers’ championship, with Lewis Hamilton a further 20 points off the pace.
Nico Rosberg warns Kimi Antonelli over F1 2026 title pressure
Antonelli has been the breakout star this season, winning eight of the 14 races held so far.
The Italian became the youngest driver to lead the standings when he overhauled Russell at the Japanese Grand Prix. He never looked back.
He built up a 66-point lead with a run of five wins, and although he only won three of the last eight races, his lead is up to 81 points as Ferrari and McLaren have taken points away from Russell with two wins apiece.
But while Antonelli took a step closer to his maiden world title with back-to-back wins at Monza and the Madring, Rosberg has warned him that the pressure is by no means over.
“The worst-case scenario,” he told Sky F1 “is if suddenly McLaren starts to edge away and maybe there’s also a Ferrari improvement or something, and that Kimi starts to drop back into the pack a little bit more.
“That is similar to where I was in my championship year because I started to [struggle]… because I was not driving as well.”
Fighting his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton for the 2016 world title, Rosberg and Hamilton saw off the competition from Mercedes’ rivals to enter the final run to the line in a two-driver fight for the crown.
Four wins in five races meant Rosberg eked out a 33-point lead over his teammate when he won the Japanese Grand Prix. That, though, was the last time he would stand on the top step of the podium.
While Hamilton went on a winning across the final four races as Rosberg had to settle for second place behind his teammate.
Not only was the German unable to beat Hamilton to pole position in any of those four races, but he was also slower than Mercedes’ rivals on his first flying lap in Q3 before putting together a P2 lap time.
“I started to drop back into the pack in those last four races,” he explained.
“I was always at some point, even in Mexico, in qualifying until the last moment. I was actually only sixth in the rankings in Q3 until the last moment.
“In each of those races, I was P3 at some point, and not P2 and [Max] Verstappen was banging into me like every single race.”
Kimi Antonelli v George Russell: Mercedes F1 2026 scores
F1 2026: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between teammates
F1 2026: Head-to-head race statistics between teammates
Antonelli, he said, could still be put under pressure in the title fight if he dropped behind not only Russell, but also a few other drivers.
“So if he were to drop back into the pack ever so slightly again, the risk just comes up, and you start to get more and more panicked about things,” Rosberg said.
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Originally published by Planet F1 —
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