F1 2026 Season So Far: Antonelli Leads Into Monza
Between-races feature from Happy Hour Racing. No Grand Prix ran this weekend, so here is where the 2026 Formula 1 season stands with 11 races left.
The Short Version
Formula 1 is on a break week. The Dutch Grand Prix on August 23 closed out Round 12 of 23, and the grid does not race again until the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on September 6. Kimi Antonelli leads the drivers' championship with 242 points, 59 clear of George Russell. The story going into the second half is not just the leader. It is Lando Norris winning the last two races, Ferrari finally showing up, and Max Verstappen sitting on zero wins for the first time in a decade.
The Title Fight After 12 Rounds
Antonelli has 242 points, six wins, and ten podiums in twelve races. He has six poles and six fastest laps. He is the youngest driver to lead a Formula 1 championship, and he has done it by finishing on the podium almost every time the car has held together.
Behind him it is tight and awkward. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton are dead even on 183 points. Russell holds second on countback because he has two wins to Hamilton's one. Norris is fourth on 159. Charles Leclerc is fifth on 155. Verstappen is sixth on 112.
There are 11 races left plus one sprint at Singapore, so 283 points are still on the table for one driver. A 59-point lead is real but it is not safe. Two bad Sundays and Antonelli is back in a fight.
McLaren Found It Late
Norris has scored 68 points in the last four rounds. Nobody has scored more. He won the Hungarian Grand Prix before the break, then led from pole at Zandvoort and beat Antonelli by more than 11 seconds. That was his 13th career win.
McLaren started the year off the pace. The upgrade package that arrived around Hungary changed that, and the team has looked like a race winner every weekend since. Norris also signed a contract extension with McLaren during the break, which tells you how both sides feel about where this car is heading.
Mercedes Is Still In Front, Ferrari Is Closing
Mercedes leads the constructors' championship with 425 points and eight of the twelve wins. Ferrari is second on 338. McLaren is third on 263. Red Bull is fourth on 186.
Ferrari has been a team of two halves. Mercedes ran away with the early rounds. Then the SF-26 updates landed and Hamilton took his first win in red at Barcelona, and Leclerc followed with a win at Silverstone that even the team did not expect. Leclerc has 65 points in the last four rounds, second only to Norris. Monza is Ferrari's home race and Leclerc has won there twice.
The Verstappen Problem
Verstappen has not won a race in 2026. That has not happened to him in ten years, and Red Bull has not gone a season this deep without a win since 2015. He has four podiums, which says the speed is in there on the right weekend. He also has four retirements, including a lap-one crash into the wall at Zandvoort that brought out the red flag in front of his home crowd.
The RB22 has been the problem more than the driver. Reports through the season have pointed at a car that is overweight and unhappy in the fast corners, and at upgrades that have not delivered what the team expected. At 112 points with 283 available, the title is not gone on paper. In practice Red Bull needs the car fixed before it needs the math.
The Season So Far By The Numbers
Every number above is through Round 12, the Dutch Grand Prix. You can see the full calendar and the live table any time on the Formula 1 schedule and standings page.
Who Is Hot, Who Is Not
Hot: Norris, with two straight wins and 68 points in four races. Leclerc, quietly the second-highest scorer since Silverstone. Hamilton, who has finished every single race this season and has not been outside the top six since May.
Not: Verstappen, still winless with four DNFs. Oscar Piastri, seventh on 104 points and now well behind his own teammate. Russell, who has scored 39 points in the last four rounds and just lost the head-to-head momentum inside his own garage.
What Monza Changes
Round 13 is the Italian Grand Prix on September 6. Monza is the fastest track on the calendar and it rewards a car that is slippery in a straight line and brave on the brakes. That usually shakes the order up. It is also the one weekend where Ferrari gets the whole grandstand behind it, and where a Mercedes driver named Antonelli races at home in front of Italian fans.
The Bottom Line
Antonelli has been the most complete driver of 2026 and he has the points to prove it. But McLaren is the fastest car right now, Ferrari is trending up into its home race, and 283 points are still out there. This championship is not over.
Your take: Is Antonelli's 59-point lead enough to hold off Norris and McLaren for eleven more races, or does Monza start the comeback? Tell us who you have.
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