Juan Pablo Montoya believes that Kimi Antonelli is talked about too much in the profession, and that Isack Hadjar should be talked about much more. This is because the latter's performance clearly overshadows the young Mercedes driver.
Many already see Antonelli as a record-breaker, and in many ways they're right, but this is due more to his youth and the competitiveness of Mercedes than to his undeniable talent. Montoya sees this as well, but believes there's a brighter star in the firmament of F1 rookies:
"I think that among the young drivers, Hadjar is still by far the best. Gabriel Bortoleto is also a skilled driver, who has had very strong qualifying sessions, but in the races he hasn't shown anything special, although he still outperforms Nico Hülkenberg.
I think Kimi Antonelli is missing something. He wasn't bad, but I thought he was going to beat George Russell in Bahrain, but that wasn't the case. He didn't even come close; he didn't do a good job. What he does is very erratic, he breaks the floor, makes a lot of mistakes, but he controls the situations he himself ruins very well. We only saw Isack Hadjar make a mistake, on the formation lap of the first race of the season, and since then he's shown rock-solid performance. And I think sooner or later this will also catch the attention of Red Bull Racing," reflected the driver, who has won seven Formula 1 races.
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