Kimi Antonelli has admitted it would be "very, very scary" to have Max Verstappen as a title rival following the Dutchman's dominant victory at the Singapore GP. Verstappen's Marina Bay win is his second in succession, after having taken an impressive victory in mixed conditions at the Bahrain GP in Malaysia the weekend prior.
While it is still mathematically possible that Verstappen snatches the title from the young Italian, Antonelli's grip on what would be a historic championship win - as F1's youngest ever title winner - only increased after a P3 finish in Singapore. If Antonelli wins the next race in Austin, while Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finish lower than P4 and P8, respectively, he will become champion.
Verstappen's form has nonetheless been mightily impressive, with the 29-year-old taking both Pole Position and the win in the Sprint and Grand Prix during the Singapore GP weekend. The Dutchman now sits P4 in the standings, but 119 points behind Antonelli.
When asked by Sky Sports F1 if he was glad that a resurgent Verstappen finds himself so far back on the lead, Antonelli replied: “Yeah, because it would be very scary. It would be very, very scary.” The Italian added: "All in all I feel like we are doing a great job. At the end, you look at the season, and we have always been there."
While getting to grips with Mercedes' recent upgrade package has not been easy, the Silver Arrows' first since May, Antonelli also praised the team as they approach the "end of the tunnel." He said: "Obviously we have had a great car and now we are trying to understand this new package.
"I'm very proud of the team this weekend because we pushed through the difficulties and started to see life at the end of the tunnel. It's just a matter of time. Now we go to Austin, a normal weekend, where we can hopefully do a lot of changes and understand the package more.”
Wolff warns Antonelli despite 'almost 100 percent chance' of winning title
Photo: Race Pictures
Meanwhile, Antonelli's boss Toto Wolff has admitted his driver has an "almost 100 percent chance" at securing the F1 Drivers' title, but has warned anything can happen in racing.
Wolff told Sky Sports F1: "You look at the numbers and ask the probability of him winning, and it's probably almost 100 percent. But it's motor racing, you can break down, you can have accidents, and then things could start to stress.
"So, I think we need to look at it race by race, make sure that we are continuing to score the points, and eventually hopefully it's going to come towards him.”