Formula 1 fans have been only half-joking this week about a “curse” surrounding a stolen podium towel, after Kim Kardashian’s now-infamous swipe of Kimi Antonelli’s towel at the Monaco Grand Prix was followed, just one race later in Barcelona, by the Italian teenager suffering his first retirement of the season.
The saga began at Monaco, where Antonelli took a remarkable win at just 19 years old, with Lewis Hamilton finishing second for Ferrari and Isack Hadjar completing the podium for Red Bull, according to Yahoo Sports. As Hamilton celebrated his result, his girlfriend Kim Kardashian was seen picking up an unused towel left out for race-winner Antonelli, sparking immediate backlash online. According to OutKick, fans were furious, with one writing that Hamilton should “leave her at home next time,” asking: “How do you even pick something up that is clearly not meant for you??”
Antonelli, for his part, took the incident in good humour, posting a lighthearted TikTok video in which he repeatedly asked, “Where is my towel?” according to ESPN. Kardashian later made amends ahead of the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, gifting Antonelli a personalised white towel embroidered with the message “To Kimi, from Kim,” as reported by Motorsport.com. Reaction to the gesture was largely positive, with one fan writing on Reddit: “Winning successive races, getting personalised toiletries from Kim K, overcoming TIO2 curse. Kid’s on a roll!”
That optimism didn’t last. At the Barcelona Grand Prix, Antonelli suffered a mechanical failure and retired from the race for the first time this season, while Hamilton secured his first win for Ferrari in what was also the first all-British podium since 1968. Antonelli still heads into the next round with a commanding 66-point lead in the drivers’ championship over Hamilton, with his Mercedes team-mate George Russell sitting third, two points further back.
Inevitably, the timing of the retirement, coming so soon after the towel exchange, has been enough for parts of the F1 fanbase to half-jokingly revive talk of a “curse,” with some suggesting Kardashian’s brief possession of Antonelli’s Monaco towel was somehow connected to his misfortune in Spain. There’s no suggestion of anything beyond coincidence and online humour, of course, mechanical failures in Formula 1 are hardly unusual, and Antonelli remains the clear championship leader. But with the paddock already amused by the unlikely celebrity subplot running through this year’s title race, don’t expect the jokes about Kim Kardashian’s towel to disappear any time soon.
