While McLaren have established themselves as the team to beat on a race day, qualifying has belonged to Max Verstappen recently.

And it is “annoying” seven-time F1 grand prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya that just as he seems to settle on the idea that Verstappen is “going to struggle”, he will go and pull a pole lap out of the bag.

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Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

The McLaren MCL39 was the most popular pick for strongest car at the start of F1 2025, and such predictions have been validated, with five of the six grands prix so far won by McLaren, four courtesy of Oscar Piastri and one for Lando Norris. However, only three of the wins came from pole.

That is because the reigning four-time World Champion Verstappen drove his Red Bull RB21 to the P1 grid slot in Japan, Saudi Arabia and Miami, with the tendency being for a quiet start to the race weekend to make way for a Verstappen pole challenge come the all-important Q3.

And that sure is “annoying” for Montoya when it comes to making his predictions.

After Verstappen’s latest show of one-lap heroics to take pole in Miami, Montoya appeared on Sky F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz’s ‘Ted’s Notebook’ programme to give his thoughts.

“I was saying, ‘Max is going to struggle here, the car doesn’t seem to have any traction’ and I don’t know what they did, but they figured it out. Again! They always figure it out,” Montoya stated.

“It’s great, but it’s like ‘Wow, that’s so annoying!’ in the same way you look at McLaren, and you go ‘Oh, they got this… again?!’”

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Verstappen saw off the threat of Norris at the race start in Miami, but as the race progressed, he could do no more than briefly hold Piastri and Norris up in coming through, Piastri going on to head a McLaren one-two, with Verstappen finishing P4, 40 seconds behind Piastri.

The McLaren MCL39 was subject to fresh reports of Red Bull scrutiny over its legality during the Miami GP race weekend, with tyre management a daunting strength of the McLaren challenger.

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown took a cheeky dig at the talk with his ‘tire water’ bottle and invited a Red Bull protest.

And Verstappen was asked by the media, including PlanetF1.com following the Miami Grand Prix, whether the tendency for McLaren’s weaknesses in qualifying to flip in the race is down to tyre management.

“A lot,” Verstappen replied.

“I think also it’s in general pure performance of the car, but also yeah, the management they have on their tyres is incredible.”

He added: “They were just miles up the road. They were just miles faster than everyone else.

“On a track where the thermal degradation is very high, they just have a massive advantage. And I think that’s quite clear.”

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