Kimi Antonelli has achieved more in five rounds than 24 Italian F1 drivers in 33 years

Kimi Antonelli's remarkable start to the 2026 F1 season has rewritten the record books in more ways than one.

The Mercedes driver arrived in China searching for his maiden grand prix victory and delivered immediately, becoming the first Italian race winner in Formula 1 for 20 years with a commanding success in Shanghai.

That breakthrough ended one of the longest droughts for a major motorsport nation, with the previous Italian winner having been Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Since that maiden triumph, Antonelli has been unstoppable. Victory in the Chinese Grand Prix was followed by four more consecutive wins, meaning the 19-year-old has claimed five grands prix in the last five rounds alone.

That tally is significant for a staggering reason: it is more victories than all 24 other Italian drivers who have competed in Formula 1 since the start of the 1993 season have managed combined.

Across the last 33 years, only Fisichella and Jarno Trulli reached the top step of the podium. Fisichella won three races during his F1 career, while Trulli famously secured victory at the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix, giving modern-era Italian drivers a combined total of four wins before Antonelli's arrival.

The scale of the drought becomes even clearer when looking further back. Before Antonelli's run began, the fifth-most-recent grand prix win by an Italian driver was Riccardo Patrese's triumph at the 1992 Japanese Grand Prix.

More than three decades later, Antonelli has single-handedly surpassed an entire generation's win tally in just five races.

The list of Italian drivers to have started at least one grand prix since the beginning of 1993 is extensive: Riccardo Patrese, Andrea de Cesaris, Michele Alboreto, Pierluigi Martini, Ivan Capelli, Nicola Larini, Gabriele Tarquini, Gianni Morbidelli, Alessandro Zanardi, Fabrizio Barbazza, Emanuele Naspetti, Luca Badoer, Marco Apicella, Andrea Montermini, Domenico Schiattarella, Massimiliano Papis, Giovanni Lavaggi, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli, Gianmaria Bruni, Giorgio Pantano, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Antonio Giovinazzi. 

The 24th and final driver is Vincenzo Sospiri, who entered the 1997 Australian Grand Prix with Lola-Mastercard, but did not qualify, with the team folding soon after.

Patrese was a six-time grand prix winner, and Alboreto won on five occasions before the start of 1993, in addition to Fisichella and Truill. But for decades, Italy searched for its next grand prix winner.

Antonelli has not only ended the wait — he has eclipsed an entire generation of Italian Formula 1 drivers in the space of five unforgettable weekends.