Juan Pablo Montoya believes that Kimi Antonelli is over-discussed in the industry, and that Isack Hadjar should be discussed much more. Indeed, the latter clearly overwhelms the young Mercedes driver with his performance.
Many already consider him a record-breaker, and not without reason, but he owes this more to his youth and Mercedes' competitiveness than to his undeniable talent. Montoya also acknowledges this, but he believes there is a brighter star among F1's rookies:
"I think that among the young drivers, Hadjar remains by far the best. Gabriel Bortoleto is also a good driver, who had a very solid qualifying session, but in the race, he didn't show anything special, even if he still outperforms Nico Hülkenberg.
As for Kimi Antonelli, I think he's missing something. He wasn't bad, but I thought he was going to beat George Russell in Bahrain, which didn't happen. He didn't even come close; he didn't do a good job. What he does is very random, he breaks the floor, makes a lot of mistakes, but he controls the situations he messes up very well. We only saw Isack Hadjar make a mistake once, on the formation lap of the very first race of the season, and since then he's delivered a solid performance. And I think he'll end up attracting the attention of Red Bull Racing sooner or later," mused the driver who has won seven Formula 1 races.
Photo: F1 / Getty Images
