Recently, former F1 and NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya gave his opinion on the young drivers this season, commenting to VegasInsider that if Mercedes do not challenge for the title, George Russell could finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Here’s what Montoya had to say:
- If Mercedes do not challenge for the title, Russell finishes ahead of Hamilton
“If Mercedes is not as strong as to win a championship, absolutely (Russell finishing ahead of Hamilton in the season).”
“If Mercedes has a shot at the championship, no. I think Lewis is still going to beat him just because he has a lot more experience.”
“If the car is average, running fifth every week, I think George will still push like he wants to win where Lewis might be disappointed, and won’t care enough.”
“If they genuinely struggle this year, will he go – ‘let’s go another year, running in the midfield?”
“I don’t see him walking him away from Mercedes to somewhere else because they struggle. I think he would probably just say, ‘thank you very much, I’m done’.”
“I think George is going to make Lewis’ life very miserable but I think it’s great. It is the next generation of top guys that is great to see.”
- The ‘paying’ drivers now have enough talent to be in Formula 1
“Mostly people in F1 are there because they have enough talent, and even with enough talent they need enough backing to make it.”
“Even the guys with extra backing to make it, they’ve done a good job in the previous Formulas. They’re not bad drivers.”
“That’s the problem. You look at people paying for seats and stuff and you go – ‘they’re terrible’. The guy terrible is finishing top 3 in F2. There’s a lot more terrible behind him.”
“The problem, in the environment of the sport, is when you have someone paying for a seat like that they feel – ‘oh my god, he’s just there because of the money’. Yeah part of it is the money but they still did a decent job. Mazepin did a decent job. Was he the fastest guy out there who would light the world on fire? Probably not. But he wasn’t terrible. He made enough points to get a super license, so, whether you like it or not, he’s there.”
“That’s a very hard argument because the paying drivers nowadays are pretty good. Are they super stellar and going to be world champions? Probably not. But can they make a career out of it? Probably yes.”
“And the thing nowadays, the way the economy is, how unpredictable it is and everything, when somebody comes with the money, the team decision is a much easier one.”
“Whether you like it or not, 80 percent of the performance in F1 is the car. You can put Lewis and Max as teammates, on a Haas, or Williams, last year and they are going to run at the back of the pack. They wouldn’t do a better job or anything that much better than George Russell was doing with it.”
“When you’re a smaller team, you want to have the best driver possible in the team but a lot of them will look at it as a business. If you’re Haas and your companies are the ones putting money in for the sport and then somebody comes and goes – ‘here is a chunk of change that you don’t have to get out of your bank’ – it’s hard to say ‘ah no no no, I’ll keep spending it’.”
“If they’re winning races they want to make sure to have the best possible driver but if they’re missing on that front, then it’s extra money for development. Once the car gets really good, they can go and hire somebody else.”
- Pierre Gasly is one to watch out for – he feels at home at AlphaTauri
“From the young guys as well, you got to look at the two guys, (Pierre) Gasly has been around in F1 for a while and it’s interesting because I don’t know how different the environment in Red Bull and AlphaTauri is really, but he really feels at home at AlphaTauri and he excels at it.”
“He matured a lot through last year. He got to learn a lot.”
“The crazy thing with F1 is when you’re really good, they give you a lot of breaks. And I think Red Bull changed their mentality lately and have been a little nicer to their guys because they used to give them a chance, and two races later someone and two races, somebody else.”
“They were not really giving people enough of a chance to perform and I think that’s changed a bit.”
“They still need to perform.”
Thanks again to VegasInsider for this insight. You can find the entire interview here.
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.
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