Kimi Antonelli dyes his hair in Italian flag colours

Kimi Antonelli turned up at Mercedes’ Brackley headquarters with his curls coloured green, white and red, keeping his promise to dye his hair if he won the Formula 1 world championship. Mercedes shared the reveal on 11 November, showing the 20-year-old with team-mate George Russell and capturing team principal Toto Wolff’s surprised reaction.

Russell and staff laughed as Antonelli showed off the Italian tricolour, while Wolff paused to take in the new look. “Kimi did it. He actually did it,” Mercedes wrote alongside the clip.

From an Austin promise to the Italian tricolour

Antonelli had already told La Gazzetta dello Sport after winning the United States Grand Prix in Austin that he would colour his hair if he won the championship. At the time, he was still weighing up the colours.

After clinching the 2026 drivers’ title with third place in Mexico City on 1 November, he told la Repubblica he was considering either Italy’s tricolour or Bologna’s red and blue. When he landed in his hometown after the São Paulo Grand Prix, he told Sky Sport Italia he was thinking of using both, one on each half. The look Mercedes showed at Brackley featured the three colours of the Italian flag.

Two titles for Mercedes to celebrate

Mexico made Antonelli F1’s youngest world champion at 20 years and 68 days and the first Italian to win the drivers’ title since Alberto Ascari in 1953. A week later, Russell and Antonelli finished fourth and fifth at Interlagos to seal Mercedes’ ninth constructors’ championship.

Antonelli told reporters in Bologna that he still wants a tenth Grand Prix win this season. His next chance comes in Las Vegas, the first of the three remaining rounds.