When Kimi Antonelli crossed the line third in Mexico City on November 1, the 20-year-old Mercedes driver became Formula One’s youngest world champion. At 20 years and 68 days, he broke Sebastian Vettel’s long-standing record and delivered Italy’s first Drivers’ title since Alberto Ascari in 1953. The podium that followed was already iconic: race winner Max Verstappen and second-place Lewis Hamilton hoisted the new champion aloft against the Heineken backdrop, the three of them celebrating a moment that locked the title with races still to run.
That Mexico coronation capped a dominant second season for the Bologna-born prodigy. Yet the broader F1 story this year has also been shaped by the sport’s growing celebrity crossover. Weeks earlier, at the Singapore Grand Prix on October 11, Kim Kardashian was trackside in the Scuderia Ferrari garage at Marina Bay Street Circuit. She was photographed hugging Hamilton in the paddock that weekend as well, a visible show of support during a race in which the seven-time champion finished sixth.
Kardashian and Hamilton have been publicly linked since early 2026. She has appeared at other races this season, including Monaco, and the Singapore garage visit underscored how thoroughly the relationship has entered the paddock. Hamilton has spoken about spending time with her children and gifting the family a golden retriever puppy named Halo. Around the Mexico weekend she was again in the city, this time promoting the second season of All’s Fair, adding another layer of star power to the title-clinching race even as the on-track focus stayed on Antonelli’s history-making result.
That same blend of high-speed competition and elevated spectacle is what Rounder Magazine captured in its recent piece “Caesars Puts the Strip Back on the Grid.” The article details how the 6.2-kilometer Las Vegas street circuit turns the Boulevard into a three-night racing stage, with hotel balconies as grandstands and the neon skyline as the ultimate backdrop. Caesars Entertainment, a founding partner whose agreement now runs through 2030, is rolling out trackside viewing rooms (including at The Vanderpump Hotel’s GIADA and Planet Hollywood’s Caramella Terrace), celebrity-chef events with Gordon Ramsay, Martha Stewart, and Rick Bayless, plus invitation-only parties. The city has committed to the race through 2037, citing roughly $800 million in annual economic impact—turning the weekend into a high-limit spectacle where the cars are the new chips.
With Brazil next and Las Vegas set for November 19–21 (night race Saturday under the lights), the timing feels charged. Antonelli arrives as champion, still racing for the remaining points and constructors’ glory. Hamilton continues his Ferrari chapter. Verstappen’s Mexico win showed he remains a threat anywhere. And the celebrity presence that defined parts of the season, from Kardashian in the Ferrari garage in Singapore to the wider orbit around the Mexico title race, will only intensify on the Strip, where F1’s crossover appeal meets Vegas’s unmatched hospitality machine.
Mexico delivered the coronation. Singapore showed the paddock’s expanding glamour. Las Vegas now offers the neon stage for the next chapter of a season that has already rewritten the record books.
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