Juan Pablo Montoya believes that too much is being said about Kimi Antonelli, and that much more should be said about Isaac Hadjar, because the latter clearly outshines the young Mercedes driver.
Many already see Antonelli as a record-breaker, which is true in many ways, but that is mostly down to his youth and Mercedes’ competitiveness, rather than his undoubted talent. Montoya sees that too, but believes there is a brighter star in the sky of F1 rookies:
"I think Hadjar is still the best among the young drivers. Gabriel Bortoleto is also a talented driver who had a very strong qualifying, but in the races he didn't show anything special, although he is still better than Nico Hülkenberg.
I think Kimi Antonelli is missing something. It wasn't bad, but I thought he would beat George Russell in Bahrain, but he didn't. He didn't even come close, he didn't do a good enough job. What he does is very chaotic, he breaks the floor, he makes a lot of mistakes, but he has very strong control over the situations he breaks. Isack Hadjar we only saw make a mistake once, during the familiarisation lap at the first race of the season, since then he has been showing a concretely confident performance. And I think sooner or later it will catch the attention of Red Bull Racing," mused the seven-time Formula 1 race winner.
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