Kimi Raikkonen has warned Kimi Antonelli not to repeat Oscar Piastri’s 2025 title collapse, saying the young Italian has the talent to stay on top but must keep his focus as pressure rises in Formula 1’s latest championship fight.
The warning lands now because Antonelli has won four consecutive grands prix and leads the 2026 championship by 43 points after George Russell’s DNF, making him the driver everyone is trying to catch. Raikkonen said that kind of run is only possible for a special talent, but he added that raw speed alone will not decide what happens next.
Raikkonen’s comparison goes straight back to 2025, when Piastri led the championship by 34 points after the Dutch Grand Prix before his form fell away later in the season. Even so, the McLaren driver was not swallowed entirely by the slump. He recovered enough to win the Qatar Sprint at the final two rounds, then finished second in the Qatar Grand Prix and again at the Abu Dhabi finale, while Lando Norris went on to become a first-time world champion.
That mix of collapse and recovery is what gives Raikkonen’s warning its edge. He said Piastri “couldn’t handle the pressure,” and while he praised Antonelli’s maturity and said he does not expect him to lose his focus, he also stressed that the Italian will have to avoid following the same path. The point is not that Antonelli has done anything wrong already. It is that a championship can turn quickly once the lead becomes the story.
Raikkonen, who won his own title in 2007, framed Antonelli’s run as proof that the Mercedes driver has something rare, from the way he approaches races to the spirit he brings to them. But he also pointed to the hard truth that has undone others before him: having the right car helps, yet it does not protect a driver from the weight of expectation. Antonelli now sits in the place every rival wants, and every mistake from here carries more damage than the last.
What happens next is the real test. Antonelli has built a 43-point cushion, but the next stretch of the season will decide whether Raikkonen’s warning reads like hindsight or foresight.
