Racing
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Juan Pablo Montoya believes Kimi Antonelli’s biggest challenge has shifted from speed to pressure, with the Canadian Grand Prix looming as the first real test of whether Mercedes’ 19-year-old title leader can keep George Russell under control.
Antonelli arrives there on a remarkable run. The Italian has taken pole position and victory in each of the last three Grands Prix in China, Japan and Miami, and after four race weekends he leads the championship on 100 points, 20 clear of Russell.
Montoya, the former Formula 1 driver, told RacingNews365 that Antonelli’s form is obvious, but the harder part is still ahead. “It is good now, but the hard thing is the pressure is going to build through the year, and it’s going to get harder,” he said. “But hopefully by then he’ll have a gap.”
That is why Montoya sees Montreal as a key measuring point rather than just another race on the calendar. He argued that Antonelli’s winning streak has come with different circumstances around it, and that Canada should offer a clearer read against his team-mate.
“I think Canada is a big telltale story, because, being realistic, I think in China, George should have won,” Montoya said. “In Japan, he was a little quicker than George. And, as well, he had the luck of the safety car, so everything lined up.”
Miami, in Montoya’s view, mattered for a different reason. Instead of simply benefiting from events, Antonelli controlled the race and absorbed the pressure that came with leading. “In Miami, he really dominated; he did a good job,” Montoya said. He added that Lando Norris looked quicker late on, “but he couldn’t pass him.”
Montoya also questioned whether Mercedes could have done more from the pit wall as the race tightened. He said he was “surprised a little bit that Mercedes wasn’t more aggressive on the strategy,” before adding that “it’s normal racing.”
The wider concern for Antonelli is that a title lead changes the environment around a driver, especially one in only his second Formula 1 season. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has already warned that expectations need to be managed and that the season remains a long game, with 18 rounds still to run.
Montoya thinks Antonelli has one major advantage as that pressure builds: the people around him. He pointed to the Mercedes engineering group, including Peter Bonnington, as a stabilizing factor in a campaign that is becoming more serious with every weekend.
“I think his engineering group, Bono and everybody have done it before a lot of times,” Montoya said. “They know what it takes, and I think that makes it much easier.”
That support has helped Antonelli build an early championship cushion, but Canada now carries extra weight because it offers Russell a chance to hit back at a track where he is expected to be stronger. If Antonelli wins there as well, the story will no longer be just an early-season surge, but a title fight in which the pressure is starting to move across the Mercedes garage.