This is the great love of Kimi Antonelli

He has the face of a choirboy, the calm of a zen master, and since Sunday also the title of youngest world champion in the history of Formula 1. Kimi Antonelli is twenty, and the world, and the girls, are at his feet. Then you naturally want to know who stood next to him when he was just a boy from Bologna with a kart and a dream. That was Eliška Babíčková, a Czech beauty who is at least as fast on the track as he is. Although their story does have a twist.

Who is Kimi Antonelli?

Antonelli became world champion at the age of 20 years and 68 days, taking the record from Sebastian Vettel. And that in just his second season, can you imagine? We were already so proud of Max Verstappen that he was racing in Formula 1 before he even had his regular driver's license, the Italians produced the youngest world champion ever. But he deserved it, because in Mexico, where Kimi became world champion, his biggest rivals, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, even lifted him onto their shoulders. Then you are great. Racing is in Kimi's family (he is also named after Kimi Räikkönen, as his father Marco was a racing driver himself. And coincidentally, that also applies to his great love and that's what we're going to talk about now, because all this racing is fun and nice, but we are of course mainly interested in love.

Who is Kimi Antonelli's girlfriend?

Eliška Babíčková is 21 and far from a lightweight in the paddock. In 2023, she won the Italian kart championship in the OK class, as the first woman ever. So she is not a girl standing by the sidelines waving, but a woman who takes the trophies home herself. In the meantime, she has also become a sought-after name on Instagram, where she shares her life between the track, fashion, and travel.

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A post shared by Eliska Bábíčková (@babickovaeli)

What kind of family does Eliška come from?

At the Babíčková home, you don't talk about the weather, but about corners, pit stops, and lap times. She comes from Vracov in the Czech Republic, and her sisters Petra and Tereza and her brother Zdeněk also race. It all started with her father, who was taken to a kart track by the son of one of his employees and was instantly enchanted. The reason for putting his daughters behind the wheel is wonderfully down-to-earth: sister Tereza told that their parents didn't want the children to go crazy on the road with their new driver's license later, so they could “practice” on the kart track. Raising through the kart track, you have to come up with that. By the way, Eliška wasn't very enthusiastic at first. Until she was nine, she mainly followed what her father wanted, and when she got the chance, she even stopped for a while. A few years later, she was back and her trophy cabinet filled up faster than Victoria Beckham's collection of Birkin bags.

How did Kimi and Eliška meet?

Of course at the place where they both preferred to be. They met in the karting world and became a couple at the end of 2023. They celebrated their first anniversary on October 14, 2024, with a sweet message on Instagram, and Eliška became a familiar face in the paddock, where she was always found. Because when you have two loves, Kimi and racing, colliding, then as a girl, you have indeed hit the jackpot.

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A post shared by Eliska Bábíčková (@babickovaeli)

Are Kimi Antonelli and Eliška still together?

No. At the end of February, a week before the first race of the year in Melbourne, Eliška announced that their relationship was over after two years. Kimi thus started the season that would make him world champion without her.

Why did Kimi Antonelli and Eliška break up?

Eliška was the one who made the decision. She felt that their lives and dreams for the future no longer matched. According to her, there wasn't a big drama behind it, just two people growing in different directions. That sounds more mature than the average forty-something. Kimi then won one race after another, perhaps turning heartbreak into hyperfocus. That not every Formula 1 driver devours the ladies faster than Leco cotton swabs, is evident from the following list.