Former Colombian racer Juan Pablo Montoya has shared his thoughts on Italian young sensation Kimi Antonelli. The 18-year-old driver is set to race for the Mercedes F1 team in the 2025 season. Kimi Antonelli is faced with the daunting task of replacing seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton on the Brackley-based team.
Hamilton will join Ferrari in 2025 after spending 12 successful years with the German outfit. While the Italian might be talented, questions arise due to his extremely young age. Juan Pablo Montoya has since also raised his concerns regarding the abilities of Kimi Antonelli.
Montoya nevertheless believes that the 18-year-old has the pace and skill to be at the pinnacle of motorsport. Antonelli has the speed to be in Formula 1, he has the ability to be in Formula 1. The question is if he is well prepared enough.
Juan Pablo Montoya on the W Radio YouTube channelLewis Hamilton‘s shoes will be tough for Kimi Antonelli to fill. He must nonetheless be wary of making his own mark as a competitor driver for the Silver Arrows. Until then, the Italian must train hard and prepare himself thoroughly for an exciting debut next season.
RELATED(Video) Toto Wolff refuses to give a clear answer over Lewis Hamilton being the leader at MercedesMercedes explains reasons behind George Russell’s pitstop ahead of a red flag at InterlagosThe Brazilian Grand Prix caused multiple red flags due to crashes and undrivable conditions. Many drivers were affected by poor decisions during the race, including Mercedes’ George Russell. George Russell (via IMAGO)One of the key things is once they announced that the VSC was ending, we had a very, very short window, only a second or two, where we could have got George to stay out on track.
Prior to that, stopping to us made sense, because given that Lando was coming in, George was able to do that. He would have still been ahead of all those cars that stayed out. Normally, we try not to assume that there is going to be a red flag, because sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong.
Andrew Shovlin via motorsportweekMercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has since explained the reason behind pitting George Russell moments before a red flag. Shovlin said that the main idea was to let Russell pit in order to get him out on a set of fresh tires before the VSC ended. RELATEDEx-F1 driver claims Williams’ Franco Colapinto is getting ‘compared to’ football ICON Lionel Messi in ArgentinaHowever, Shovlin admitted that a red flag was not correctly anticipated from their side, which caused major losses in Russell’s performance.
He ultimately finished P4 in a race that he could have won with the help of correct strategies.
