Juan Pablo Montoya: Leclerc was ‘wrong’ on Hamilton, Ferrari should back Lewis, Antonelli will win the WDC and shine in Madrid

Speaking exclusively to BetBrothers, seven-time Grand Prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya said Charles Leclerc was wrong to push Lewis Hamilton off the track at Monza and he’s urged Ferrari’s Chairman and Team Principal to prioritise the seven-time World Champion for the rest of the season.

Montoya believes Kimi Antonelli will win the World Drivers’ Championship after a shocking win from 19th position in Italy and that he will shine in Madrid’s first-ever Grand Prix this weekend. But, the Colombian believes George Russell should’ve been pitted first in Monza and Mercedes had their priorities wrong.

Read the full interview below:

Should Lewis Hamilton be fuming with Charles Leclerc after he ruined his chances of winning Monza and with his teammate for crashing out early on too?

JPM: “The Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc incident at the start of Monza is the best thing that happened to Ferrari. Because they’re gonna have to make a decision and pick one. I think at this point, knowing that the long term future is Charles and Lewis doing a really good job and you wanna maximise Lewis because at this point winning with Lewis would be more important than winning with Charles.

Yes, he went for the gap, but that’s your f*****g job. When you’re a driver, and you see the gap, you gotta take the f*****g gap. He went for the gap. He didn’t hit him, he didn’t lock up, he didn’t run into anybody, and he was clean enough that he gave Charles room to go around the corner. He could’ve pushed out his elbows and run Charles off, but he didn’t. He gave Charles enough space, and then Charles gets to the apex and runs Lewis into the gravel, and that’s just wrong. Charles did what I would have done, but now they the way the teams play, you can’t do that.

I think Fred Vasseur needs to bring both drivers to Italy, and I think John Elkann needs to get involved. If they really need wanna stop this, they really need to get the s**t together and do it properly. Ferrari has always been about individuals, but it’s something that Damon Hill said that is true is, every time Ferrari succeeded, it’s been a one-driver team.”

How long do you think Lewis Hamilton will be at Ferrari?

JPM: “Lewis Hamilton will be at Ferrari for two or three more years, probably. I think what they need to go to Charles Leclerc and say, ‘From now, we’re gonna focus on Lewis and see how this works.’

They can decide at the end of the year how they want to play out next season, whether they want to prioritise Lewis again or give Charles a go as the number on. He needs to know that at the end of this line he’s gonna have the opportunity to become number one, whether Lewis declines or leaves and whoever comes is going to come as a number two. And if he knows that, I think it’d be a fair thing to do because it’s for the good of the team.

When Lewis is showing frustration like this, that anger is because he feels that they’re throwing points away and performance away and they’re wasting time arguing about politics, when it’s about winning. And they’re more concerned about keeping everybody happy and this is not about keeping everybody happy, this is about winning. And if you look at the best the best example I can come up with is look at Mercedes.

Do you think the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc has gotten worse?

JPM: “I don’t think it’s bad, they’re two guys that are very competitive. The hard thing is, I think Charles Leclerc felt he could beat Lewis Hamilton really easily last year. And he underestimated how good Lewis is. And seeing Lewis today is like Charles can’t compute why this guy that he could beat every week is kicking his ass. Is he driving wrong? Is he not happy with the car? What is he maybe doing that I’m not doing? And if you see he’s learning and he’s pushing himself further than anybody before.

So this is making him a better driver. But the problem is, when you’re pushing yourself this hard, and you need to make your mind think you need to destroy your teammate, and then your teammate dive bombs you and makes you look like a fool because he did it perfectly because you left the door open, you’re going to say, ‘You know what? F**k you’.”

Has that win at Monza basically won Kimi Antonelli the World Drivers’ Championship? His confidence will be sky-high. 

“I think Kimi Antonelli winning at Monza was really cool. it was a really good drive. He did everything right. The car was unbelievable. and he executed perfectly and the team executed perfectly for him. “It’s really hard to be mad at him and go against him when he’s such a nice kid. If he was an asshole, it would be so much easier for George Russell to go at him. But he’s just a happy camper. So it makes it difficult.

You look at Zandvoort, Kimi was ahead, they stopped him, got behind, and they asked George to get out of the way. That was the right call. So in Monza, you put the drivers on different strategies, knowing that stopping is a better strategy than staying out. Why did the guy leading not have priority? And isn’t your mentality that we want to protect ourselves from Max Verstappen? This is the hard part. The right thing to do was to tell Kimi to stay second, but if you tell Kimi to stay second in Italy, you don’t come out of that paddock.”

How poor has George Russell been, especially as Antonelli has completely outperformed him in the same car? 

JPM: “This is the hard thing, Kimi Antonelli’s doing such an amazing job that it is putting Mercedes in a really difficult situation. How are you gonna tell Kimi, who came through the field, starting at 19th, that he’s not allowed to win the race? Because it’s not the fair thing to do, you can’t. When you’re Toto Wolff in that moment, and all the people are making that decision, they’re cheering for Kimi.

They would be cheering for Kimi. I would be cheering for Kimi. That is the hard reality. Why was George not stopped? That for me is a question. If you knew stopping was going to be quicker, why was George not given another stop?

Has Kimi Antonelli won the World Drivers Championship? 

If George maintained that gap he had on Antonelli and the race is near finishing, at some point they’re gonna tell Kimi to maintain position and bring the car home. Because Kimi is not going to get there. But if they’re telling Kimi that he’s going to catch George, then he’s going to drive like a maniac.

George told his engineers that he was driving at 100% but when Kimi caught him, he found more pace. Is he over-managing the tyres? I think the gap was a lot smaller than he thought and I think he was overdoing it, overthinking it. And it’s understanding when you have a teammate like Kimi who is as quick as he is, but if you look at him in practice, Kimi wasn’t as quick.

I think George was quicker all weekend, but George was never given the chance on a medium tyre in the race to show anything. So the hard truth, I think if they were both on medium tyres, I think George would’ve won the race.”

Max Verstappen got a solid third-place at Monza – would finishing top three in the World Drivers’ Championship be a massive achievement for him considering how inconsistent the Red Bull has been? 

JPM: “Max Verstappen did an amazing job. Yeah. But I don’t think Red Bull is really hard to drive, and the window of working is very small, but they always seem to find the pace with Max. I was surprised that Red Bull were not helping Liam to get into Q3. I think they were more concerned with making sure Max qualified in a good position. But I think if they had helped Liam, then Max would have qualified better, possibly.”

What are your thoughts on Max Verstappen staying at Red Bull? 

JPM: “If I’m Max, I would have stayed there. I think what we always said, I think he was talking to other teams, was more about negotiating more money out of Red Bull. And I think he’s the right fit for them, and Red Bull is the right environment for him. They’re willing to do everything for him, built everything around him. And you know what I mean? I think Checo Perez was the one who once said that Red Bull would be happy to only have one car. You know what I mean? And Liam Lawson did a really good job. I don’t know if they had upgrades in the car that made a difference.

And I remember a lot of times when Red Bull brings upgrades, they bring upgrades to Max first. So it’s very hard to know if both cars were in the same spec.”

Has Yuki Tsunoda persuaded Red Bull that he should maybe stay in the Racing Bulls seat ahead of Liam Lawson? 

JPM: “The right thing to do from Racing Bulls and Red Bull, in my opinion, is to keep Liam Lawson. I think he’s done a really good job. He’s done a really good job all year. He’s played the game properly and everything and I mean, Red Bull will always have enough drivers to pick for what they need in the future, but at this point, knowing that Max Verstappen is staying and Isaac Hadjar will be there for a long time as a teammate, Racing Bulls need to build two really strong drivers for the future.

You don’t need to start flipping drivers right now. You need to think about for the next three or four years and I think Liam could be a really good leader there and I think you know Arvid Lindblad is done a really good job, but I think Lawson has done a better job. So I think that combination works well, they seem to get along really well, so why change it?” 

Who will win the Madrid Grand Prix?

JPM: “I think Kimi Antonelli will shine at Madrid, massively. I think Lando Norris is going to do really well. I think Max Verstappen is going to be really good and I think Fernando Alonso is going to be really good. And Lewis Hamilton, maybe Charles Leclerc too. If Charles can bring his driving style from Monaco here, Charles could do a really good job if he doesn’t crash.

I don’t know if Ferrari were using too much power in practice in Italy and looking good. Or they were testing the new engine to see how it behaved with more power. But when that Mercedes engine was turned up, it was really good. I think the Red Bull has a really strong engine, but it’s probably had a little more drag than Mercedes.”