'It's a memory that will live forever' — Antonelli after being crowned F1 world champion

It's incredible. It's a dream that I've had since I was a kid and to finally achieve it is really special and this has to be a new starting point as well for me. This has to be just the beginning and I feel like it's a new starting point from where I can build again and come back even stronger. You know, I already started to get emotional in the last lap, and yeah, just, you know, a lot of memories going through the mind, and, you know, when I finally crossed the finish line, I just let it all out, because, you know, it's been an incredible year, and, you know, so much work, so much effort, and to achieve this goal, and, you know, finally achieving it has been a big relief as well, and, of course, also, I fell. It was incredible and that's why I felt like letting it all out because it was the moment to do so and definitely it's a memory that will live forever. Did you doubt yourself at times? I did. Many times. I think Spa was my lowest moment and that was a moment where I definitely questioned myself. I was like, am I actually good enough for this? So it's been very tough. But then, you know, knowing that. I had the full support from the team and that they still believe in me despite everything that was happening. It was really important for me to get the confidence back and to rebuild the momentum and then the end of the season was much better in that regard. At the start it was always very tense and I'm pretty sure he didn't like it at the time, but now it's something much more and he's actually enjoying it. You know, so the cool thing is that, you know, first of all, being able to work with Bono. It's an incredible privilege because he has worked with Michael Schumacher, with Lewis. So the amount of experience, the knowledge he has, the way he handles situations, even in a race, in his team race, he's always calm, always direct, and it was always easy to understand. So that really makes the difference. It probably in the season was the moment where I felt most nervous. You know, you will say why, you know, when you just need to do two points, but it's different, you know, and of course you're so close, but as you said earlier, until it's done. you know it's not done so you still gotta do the job yeah and you never know what can happen so i was very nervous and at the start i took it quite easy yeah but basically i watched the start and i left a massive gap to max it just go through i was like oh my god what did i just do but you know i was i was just you know trying to stay out of trouble but then at some point in the race i I said, okay, look. I cannot just sit behind. I got to do something. After the red flag, I saw the opportunity to move up into the podium and I took it. And I think that was very important because I really wanted to win the title with a good race. I just didn't want to just sit behind and finish P5 or just, you know, I just, I still want to do a good result and that's why it was extra special. I think like when I will look at the mirror, I will see the usual Kimi, but I will be proud of myself, of what I was able to achieve together with the team, with my family. So I will be proud of myself, but at the same time, I will remind myself that this is just the beginning. As Seb said, there's still a race to win, there's still more championships to win, so we've got to still go for it. But now that we get a chance, we've got to enjoy it.