Sometimes the best drama in Formula One doesn’t happen on the track—it happens in a viral Instagram reel. Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the 19-year-old Italian Mercedes driver who’s been absolutely dominant with five straight race wins, posted a cheeky video ahead of this weekend’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix asking his seven million followers a deceptively simple question: “Have you seen my towel?”
Sounds ridiculous, right? Here’s where it gets interesting. Television footage from after last Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix appeared to show Kim Kardashian—who was there with Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton—picking a folded towel off the number one marker, wiping her face and sunglasses with it, and walking away. The towel in question? Antonelli’s Monaco winner’s keepsake. In his video, Antonelli even got teammate George Russell involved, asking him if he’d spotted it. Russell hadn’t. Then came the hand-washing, and the question again: still no towel.
The whole thing has that perfectly timed blend of Formula One playfulness and celebrity culture collision that makes sports social media irresistible right now. When pressed about it during the Circuit de Catalunya press conference on June 11, 2026, Antonelli kept the bit alive: “No, still looking for it.” Even seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton seemed genuinely puzzled when asked if he might help track down the missing item, responding with a befuddled “His towel?” that suggested he was either playing along or genuinely clueless about the whole affair.
What makes this genuinely charming is that Antonelli never once named anyone in the video. He let the internet do what the internet does best—detective work mixed with humor. He didn’t go nuclear on social media or throw shade. Instead, he turned a lighthearted moment into must-watch content, and everyone involved (Hamilton, Kardashian, the paddock) seems content to lean into the joke. It’s the kind of unscripted, good-natured ribbing that reminds us why we love following these drivers beyond just the lap times.
The real question now: does Kardashian still have it, or has it become the most famous missing towel in motorsport history?
