Antonelli’s F1 Preparedness Sparks Montoya’s Doubts

Is 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli ready for Formula 1? Juan Pablo Montoya shares his concerns after the Italian’s shaky practice performances.

What will be the level of Kimi Antonelli’s F1 debut with Mercedes in 2025?

It remains difficult to have a definitive opinion, but some still doubt whether the young Italian is truly ready to make the leap directly into a top team, even though Mercedes no longer consistently fights for victories at every Grand Prix.

This is the view of Juan Pablo Montoya, a former F1 driver, who admits he was not impressed by the 18-year-old’s initial outings during Friday practice in Monza and Mexico.

Antonelli, in fact, crashed just minutes after taking to the track in Monza.

“There was so much hype all weekend, and I guess you could say I learned a lesson the hard way with what happened in Free Practice 1,” Antonelli explained.

Montoya has a more critical perspective.

“He went out on track and looked like he was immediately trying to set the lap record. Then he wrecked the car.”

Antonelli doesn’t hide the fact that he adopted a much more cautious approach for his second outing in Mexico.

“I had more time to prepare because it wasn’t a F2 weekend. It was a much cleaner session, and that’s exactly what was needed after Monza. I didn’t want to take any risks and learned a lot.”

Montoya, however, has a very different take on what actually happened.

“In Mexico, in my opinion, he drove too cautiously to avoid damaging anything.”

“At Monza, he was criticized for putting the car off track; in Mexico, he was too slow, and of course, that’s not good either. You need to find the right balance, and I see this as a problem.”

“Kimi has the ability and speed to race in Formula 1, there’s no doubt about that.”

“He has done far more laps than other rookies like (Oliver) Bearman, (Jack) Doohan, or (Gabriel) Bortoleto, thanks to all those tests with the older Mercedes on many different circuits. But I question whether he’s truly ready for this step.”

Team boss Toto Wolff is reportedly considering bringing Valtteri Bottas back to Mercedes F1 as a reserve driver next year, a kind of disguised “Plan B” in case Antonelli faces real difficulties.

But Wolff denies having such plans for Bottas.

“You must have faith in your drivers. You need to give them maximum support to succeed.”

“Only if things go really wrong would we consider other options. It’s like flirting with someone else, or thinking about it, while trying to make your relationship work. That cannot succeed.”