Kimi Antonelli finished third at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday and became Formula One’s youngest world champion, at 20 years and 68 days, with four races still to run. The record he broke belonged to Sebastian Vettel, who won his first title in 2010 at 23 years and 134 days.

It is a record about age, and rugby league has its own versions of it. At least two players have won NRL premierships while younger than Antonelli is today.

Brad Fittler is the better known of them. He debuted for Penrith in 1989, aged about 17, and played in the 1990 grand final at 18, which Penrith lost. A year later he was back. On 22 September 1991, the Panthers beat Canberra 19–12 for the club’s first premiership, and Fittler was 19 years and 229 days old. He remains the youngest player to run out for New South Wales in State of Origin, at 18 years and 114 days, and he captained Australia at 23.

Will Hopoate is the more recent. He turned 19 in May 2011, and in October that year he played on the wing in Manly’s grand final win over the Warriors. Hopoate was already well known for being young. As one of the youngest players, for debuting at 16 years and 106 days.

The comparison has limits, and they matter. An F1 championship belongs to one driver across a full season. A premiership belongs to a whole team on the day, and a teenager in a grand final side is one part of that. Antonelli’s title is also his own, built across a full season, in a sport where the car does a good share of the work.

What the two sports share is how early they are prepared to ask. Both pull teenagers into the highest level, and both then have to find out whether the talent holds. Fittler went on to captain his country before he was 24, while Hopoate’s career took a different route.

For Antonelli, the age record is already his. The harder record is the one Fittler and Hopoate were asked to chase, and the one every young champion eventually faces, how long you can keep winning.