It speaks volumes of how we regard Kimi Antonelli that the 20-year-old’s victory in the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix on Sunday September 6, 2026, while rightly being lauded as sensational, wasn’t really considered a surprise.
On the fast straights and into the tight chicanes of Monza, winning from 19th on the grid was never completely out of the question for a young man recognised by all as a generational talent, driving a Mercedes that is the benchmark of this season.
Kimi Antonelli sliced through the backmarkers and midfield runners as if they barely existed. He was already 12th when the race was stopped for Charles Leclerc’s big crash on lap two, and by lap 16 after the restart was already tailing team-mate George Russell. A tactical stop for fresh tyres under a Virtual Safety Car cost him 15 seconds, but as Russell plugged away on ageing hard-compound Pirellis that gap shrunk all too quickly.
A first attempt for the lead caused a heart-in-mouth trip through a gravel trap, but it was the only blot on an otherwise perfect afternoon. Antonelli passed Russell with three laps to go for one of the great F1 victories of modern times.
But hey, Kimi, try pulling off a back-to-front win like that on a street track. Way back in the 1980s, that’s what John Watson managed, not once but twice: from 17th on the grid to victory in the Motown Detroit Grand Prix of 1982, then early the next year the performance that still holds the record. At Long Beach on March 27, 1983, ‘Wattie’ drove his McLaren-Ford from 22nd to first to set a mark that even Antonelli couldn’t match 43 years later.
Kimi Antonelli started so far back because of a pre-planned engine change that triggered penalties for exceeding limits for the number of components used across a season. There was nothing he could do about it. So what was John’s excuse?
“The reason team-mate Niki Lauda and I started in P23 and P22 respectively was we weren’t able to get the Michelin tyre to work in a qualifying situation,” he explains. “But when we put a full fuel load in the car it was transformed. We went forward in tandem, with Niki ahead of me.
“I made up my mind that if I let a car get between him and me I would lose that ability to beat him, which is what I was hell-bent on doing. Every time he passed someone I slipped up along and under as well. To get past Niki, I knew my only realistic chance was going down Shoreline Drive, so I went down the inside, the left front brake grabbed briefly and that moved the car over towards him – he wasn’t impressed. But once I had the corner there was no looking back.”
Sure, it helped that the Williams of Keke Rosberg punted out the Ferrari of leader Patrick Tambay, while at the next corner the Finn got a taste of his own medicine from Jean-Pierre Jarier. But Wattie still had to pass Jacques Laffite’s Williams for the lead – amazingly, as early as lap 45 of 75.
“First of all, I have to give credit to the team and the car,” says the Northern Irishman. “But I like to think I was a very good race driver – by that I mean someone who can overtake. In part it’s a frame of mind as much as ability, about being clear and positive in your actions when you are coming up behind another car. In his commentary, James Hunt acknowledged I was the best overtaker of the day. People see you coming and reputation counts as much as anything.”
He also puts his performance down to being in the best physical shape of his life at the time. Lauda arrived in California on the back of a Marlboro sponsor slog to Argentina, which Wattie had sidestepped given the still raw political tensions over the Falklands Islands. He’d also fully embraced a new fitness regime directed by Willi Dungl, the Austrian health specialist who had helped Lauda recover from his fiery crash in ’76.
So what reaction did Watson and Lauda, who made it a McLaren 1-2, receive back in the paddock? After all, team chief Ron Dennis had been less than impressed with his drivers following their abject qualifying.
“When the race finished Marlboro and McLaren were speechless,” smiles John. “They didn’t have a word to say to Niki and I, because they didn’t know what to say. A ‘well done’ might have dribbled out. But Willi came and said: ‘John, I knew you would win this race today.’ The reason was he saw a disciple in me. Niki did the fitness stuff because he knew he needed to, but I don’t think he enjoyed it. He liked a cigarette from time to time, a glass of scotch, an espresso – all the things Willi said no to. In contrast, I was ‘where do I sign?’ I found the whole thing an amazing experience.”
But is Watson’s record safe for ever after? For years, he thought so. But now thanks to Cadillac, there are 22 cars back on the F1 grid. At least he knows his record can only be equalled. The likelihood is, unless the grid expands further, it can never be beaten.
