SÃO PAULO -- New Formula 1 world champion Kimi Antonelli will race with a helmet bearing the the colours of Brazil and Ayrton Senna this weekend after a "truly emotional" visit to his gravesite earlier this week.
Antonelli became F1's youngest champion at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
This week he travelled early to São Paulo to the memorial of the three-time world champion, who was killed in a crash at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
"I was truly emotional, a very, very special day, a day that I will remember forever and that's why I will always be thankful and grateful towards the Senna family for allowing me to to see that," he said.
On Thursday, Antonelli revealed a yellow and green helmet -- a tribute to Senna -- that he will wear for this weekend's race at Interlagos. It was planned long before he had won his first championship and was a tribute to Senna's famous 1991 win at Interlagos, his first win on home soil, where he spent much of the race stuck in sixth gear.
After clinching his first F1 title last weekend, Antonelli confirmed he will not run the number 1 on his car as world champion, instead keeping the number 12 which he picked as a tribute to Senna, his racing idol.
As a kid, Antonelli would binge through old videos of historic F1 races, immediately finding an affinity with the Brazilian legend.
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Senna raced with the number 12 at Lotus in 1986 and 1987 and with McLaren in 1988 when he clinched his first world championship.
This week, Antonelli posted a picture sat inside Senna's black and gold Lotus 98T from 1986, with the number 12 prominently displayed on the front.
"To even sit in the car which was very special and you know it was an amazing day," he said. "I actually didn't want to leave. I tried to stay as long as I could there because, yeah, it was just such a nice experience and the Senna family was very open to showing [the] place where Ayrton used to spend time. It was crazy to think, when I was there, like 'wow, Ayrton was actually here,' you know? He was spending time in this room too. So it was very emotional and a very, very special day."