His first Grand Prix victory, and then this: Andrea Kimi Antonelli was called up to the podium under the wrong name and appeared visibly confused
A mix-up on the podium after the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai: Moments after his first Formula 1 victory, Andrea Kimi Antonelli was introduced as “Kimi Räikkönen.” A Mercedes video captures the scene—and shows Antonelli climbing onto the podium, visibly irritated. The video quickly went viral.
One fan commented: “What an embarrassing blunder. He gets his first win and is then introduced as someone else.” Another fan wrote: “[The announcer] had exactly one job… I was already wondering why Antonelli looked so confused. At first, I hadn’t even noticed it.”
A third simply said: “That’s hilarious! That’s why he looked so confused. When I watched the broadcast, I thought he’d lost something or something. It seemed like he was surprised to see Lewis and George already on the podium.”
But is there even a connection between Antonelli’s and Räikkönen’s first names? Is Antonelli named after Räikkönen?
Antonelli himself answered these questions years ago in a Mercedes team video. He said at the time: “My middle name, Kimi, isn’t because of the race car driver, but simply because it went well with my first name and last name. It wasn’t given to me by my parents, but by a friend of ours.”
Kimi Räikkönen has not been active in Formula 1 since the end of the 2021 season. The 2007 world champion ended his Grand Prix career after 349 Formula 1 race starts and 21 victories for McLaren, Ferrari, and Lotus.
Fun fact: When Antonelli was born in August 2006, Räikkönen was not yet a Formula 1 world champion, but still a McLaren driver, and Michael Schumacher was competing in his final season for Ferrari.
Incidentally, Shanghai was the scene of another mix-up at the podium ceremony years ago: When Sebastian Vettel secured the first victory for the Red Bull Formula 1 team in 2009, the British national anthem was played by mistake instead of the Austrian one. Although Red Bull has its Formula 1 headquarters in Milton Keynes, England, it races under an Austrian license.