Juan Pablo Montoya does not think Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been the best rookie so far this season, as the Mercedes ace ‘didn’t measure up’ when he expected the most.
The 18-year-old took on one of the toughest challenges that a rookie can have to make their debut in the pinnacle of motorsport. Yet Antonelli has enjoyed a record-breaking start to his F1 career since taking over the Mercedes cockpit that Lewis Hamilton ditched to join Ferrari.
Antonelli became the third-youngest driver to ever start an F1 Grand Prix when he thrived in the challenging mixed conditions that Australia delivered to start the season. He overcame a disappointing qualifying after floor damage left the Italian starting in 16th to finish in fourth.
Mercedes even saw Antonelli beat Max Verstappen’s record as F1’s youngest race leader by three days when he led the Chinese Grand Prix at 18 years and 224 days. He is also the first rookie since Hamilton for McLaren in 2007 to get points in their first three Grand Prix starts.
Juan Pablo Montoya snubs Andrea Kimi Antonelli as Isack Hadjar is ‘far away’ the best 2025 F1 rookie
Yet Montoya thinks Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar is ‘far away’ the best rookie on the 2025 F1 grid as Antonelli failed to deliver when he expected the Mercedes talent to shine most in Bahrain. He also feels Gabriel Bortoleto has impressed during qualifying yet not in the races.
Montoya felt Antonelli would build on the pace he showed at Suzuka to rival George Russell in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Yet the Bologna boy left the seven-time F1 Grand Prix winner with a few more questions than answers, having finished in P11 and 32.517s behind Russell in P2.
READ MORE: Know all about 2025 Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli including stats
“I insist, among the young drivers, the best of the young drivers continues to be Hadjar. He’s far away,” Montoya told AS. “I would say Bortoleto has had very good qualifications, but not very good races. Bortoleto’s races have been good against [Nico] Hulkenberg.
“Antonelli? It seems to me that he was missing a little bit. He wasn’t bad. I thought Antonelli would beat Russell in Bahrain, and he wasn’t there. I remember we were watching the race in the Formula 2 paddock and he wasn’t even close. He wasn’t there, he didn’t measure up.
“It’s complicated because the races that happened [in Australia and China], he broke the car, damaged the floor. In Japan, he did a good job at the end of the race, but a little bit late.”
Isack Hadjar impresses F1 icons despite having far less testing than Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Montoya is far from alone in being impressed by Hadjar, who had far less testing to prepare for Formula 1 than his counterpart. Mercedes gave Antonelli 10,000km in private F1 tests in their older cars, whereas Red Bull only decided Hadjar would join Racing Bulls in December.
READ MORE: Who is Racing Bulls 2025 F1 driver Isack Hadjar? Everything you need to know
Yet the 20-year-old has overcome his inferior preparation to impress many F1 legends, with 1996 world champion Damon Hill ‘surprised’ by Hadjar’s rookie results. Additionally, Hadjar has ‘really impressed’ Anthony Davidson and the Frenchman’s race engineer, Pierre Hamlin.
His results have not stacked up to Antonelli’s given the Parisian has an inferior car at Racing Bulls to the Bologna boy’s Silver Arrow. Yet Hadjar recorded his first points with P8 in Japan, where he also reached Q3 for the first time in P7, and was P10 in the Saudi Arabian GP, too.
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