Juan Pablo Montoya, in his opinion, talks too much about Kimi Antonelli and much more should be said about Isack Hadjar, because his performance clearly surpasses the youngster from Mercedes.
Many already see Antonelli as a record-breaker, and in many ways he is, but they attribute it all to his youth and Mercedes' competitiveness rather than his undoubted talent. Montoya sees that too, but he believes there is a brighter star on the horizon for F1's rookies:
"I think Hadjar is still the best of the young drivers. Gabriel Bortoleto is also a skilled driver who had a very strong qualifying but didn't show anything special in the race, although he still beats Nico Hülkenberg.
"I think Kimi Antonelli is missing something. He wasn't bad, but I thought he would beat George Russell in Bahrain, but he didn't. He hasn't even come close to him yet, he hasn't done a good enough job. What he does is very rhapsodic, he breaks the floor, he misses a lot, but he controls the situations he messes up very strongly. We only saw Isack Hadjar make one mistake, in the opening round of his first racing season, and since then he has been very reliable. And I think that sooner or later it will also catch the attention of Red Bull Racing," the winner of seven Formula 1 races mused.
Photo: F1/Getty Images
