Outside Line: In over 50 years of following Formula 1, I've never seen anything like Kimi Antonelli

The Italian teenager's victory at the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday will go down as the kind of moment we all remember, much like Ayrton Senna nearly winning his first race at that venue in treacherous conditions, a drive the great Brazilian would no doubt admire.

This time, 42 years later, there was no rain as the sun shone brightly over Monte Carlo on the Côte d'Azur, Formula 1's crown jewel. The Grand Prix, which every racing driver wants to win. At 19, Kimi Antonelli became the youngest driver ever to do so, and not by luck, not because of rain, and not because of circumstance. Because of genius, of the racecraft kind.

Because he simply dominated qualifying and the race in a manner for which I do not have sufficient superlatives to describe. The immensity of what he achieved so soon is hard to process for me. And, importantly, not to forget, thanks to the current F1 rules, he and the 21 others are driving the most complex and complicated F1 contraptions ever built.

It is so impressive to see this kid go about his racing. He appears like a veteran. He drives like Max Verstappen, I often think. But they also have huge differences, personality-wise. We know the hardships the Dutch ace endured under the tutelage of his father, Jos Verstappen.

In contrast, Antonelli comes from what seems to be a very stable and loving family environment, which has produced this incredible sportsman. In Mercedes, they have the big boss, Toto Wolff, as his mentor. The young man is in good hands.

Beyond the racing drama, his enthusiastic way in which he speaks, his constant smile and twinkling eyes of youth, and the effortless way he conducts himself are endearing. His absolute awareness of just about everything going on around him, coupled with his angelic looks, makes it hard to believe that when the helmet is on, the Kid is actually the 'monster' race driver we have been watching this season. 

Let's not forget that this Antonelli surge has come against what many considered the 2026 Formula 1 world champion-elect, namely, George Russell. Antonelli has destroyed his Mercedes teammate in the four races before Monaco. Victory at the Principality was the icing on the cake.

Excuses were plentiful. First, Russell was beaten because it was supposedly a track that did not suit his style, or one he never liked. Now that we have visited a variety of tracks – tight corners, fast corners, slippery tracks, grippy tracks, you name it. Each time, little Kimi has simply owned big George.

The Englishman just doesn't have any answers. He might find some if he hopped on board the #12 Mercedes on-board of Monaco and watched the masterclass he missed from the cockpit while labouring all afternoon for the pointless reward for his efforts with P12.

On the other hand, in the same car as Russell, Antonelli drove the kind of race that would make the original Mr Monaco, Graham Hill and record six-time winner Ayrton Senna very proud. I'm sure the two of them, in motorsport heaven, were standing up and applauding what we saw. I stood up and applauded, too.

The only depressing element of this entire story is the fact that we are seeing this greatness emerge amid a Formula 1 era where these cars are, frankly, a joke. A €25 million piece of kit could not get off the line in the hands of one of the greatest drivers motorsport has ever seen, Max Verstappen, and denied us what could have been the most amazing duel in Formula 1 history.

Imagine if Max had got off the line, even if he had dropped a position or two. That would have been a race for the ages.

The fact that now it is very much a race for the ages is all down to Kimi. He made it one by dominating the majority of the race. He aced his starts. He was good everywhere. Slow corners, fast corners, whatever. But that's not what Kimi's driving is all about. 

A decade ago, when my son Luis was being coached in the Sodi Academy in Dubai by a very fine karter and coach, former karting world champion Luke Varley. On occasions, he would spend time coaching my son, and of course, I would hang around in the shadows. Eavesdropping, learning.

I remember Luke telling Luis that the key target for a race driver when approaching a corner is one steering movement. Combined with the brake and throttle, that single precise movement maximises grip, with the angle set to clip the perfect entry, the apex and a perfect exit.

The minute a driver is shuffling the wheel, steering more than once to hit the three crucial points of best entry, apex and exit, he or she is scrubbing off speed. It's only milliseconds, but speed gets scrubbed.

So the ideal way to take a corner is in one movement. If you go on board with Kimi and watch his qualifying laps, it's unbelievable, so precise, so accurate, so seemingly effortless. It actually looks slow.

That's exactly what Kimi does. He's a one-movement master when it comes to corners, be they slow, which he tackles like few I have seen, or fast, which might've hampered him last year, but not anymore, it seems. For that reason, his greatest strength, in my opinion, is the entire Kimi package.

It's not about heavy braking. It's not about coming off the throttle early. It's about getting every element of the corner perfect, without fuss. That's what he did lap after lap again at Monaco, a perfect race to victory.

He knows exactly how to minimise effort and maximise speed and performance. In doing so, he preserves the car. He preserves it so well that when the race restarted for that final dozen-lap sprint, he launched like a rocket off the line.

That showed he knew stutters were his Achilles heel. He worked on them, and he blitzed the fast-starting Ferrari of none other than Lewis Hamilton in a very fast starting Ferrari on both occasions. He then proceeded to pull out around half a second per lap and set the fastest lap to boot.

That means the car was in impeccable condition when he handed it back to the team after 78 laps of high attrition. Go figure! And if you really want to see what it meant to him, watch the footage of him climbing out after the win.

Therein you see the hunger, the anger, the passion, the joy and the absolute joy and good feelings this kid has brought to our sport, helping soothe the pain of these obnoxious Formula 1 cars.

Before the red flag, I found myself worried. Concerned that Kimi would make a mistake. Such was his dominance that he simply had to maintain focus. And I have to say this: I got immense déjà vu.

Whenever (my F1 King) Ayrton Senna built a huge lead in Formula 1, I would worry something might happen. I always felt disaster was lurking. I remember the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix, where Senna was leading, on another planet and trying to lap Alain Prost. I really do believe he became distracted by the advantage he held.

Watching Antonelli felt like going back in time. I kept thinking, "Please, Kimi, please." And he didn't crack. He didn't make the mistake.

We're talking about Senna making a mistake at the height of his powers at the time. He was ten years older than Kimi is today. The Brazilian had won his first Monaco GP a year earlier with Lotus. The first of six!

In sharp contrast, this was Kimi's second visit to the Principality. Last year, he finished P18, last on the track. Nevertheless, last Sunday, faced with a similar dominant dilemma as Ayrton did, he didn't do what Senna did. He didn't lose concentration. He didn't put it on the wall.

Antonelli brought it home with a flourish. Defying team instructions to chill out, he set the final lap late on, just as the greats do, simply to show his team and the world: "You guys are great. You're on the pit wall. I'm the driver. I make the call."

You have to admire and even love that about him. And I imagine, already, the four wins must have raised eyebrows among his rivals on the grid, but when they review the race, I am sure every other driver on the Formula 1 grid, if not shell-shocked, has had a massive wake-up call. The lofty bar Max has been raising over the past half-decade has now been taken a notch or two higher.

Antonelli has only just 'arrived', and in less than a year and a half, he's owning them all. It's one of the greatest stories I have ever seen in this sport, and it is just beginning. As it says at the top of this piece, I haven't seen anything like it since Formula 1 became my religion in the early seventies. It is a privilege to witness.