Former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya is confident that Red Bull is on the verge of a resurgence, warning its rivals that the Milton Keynes outfit is “for sure coming” back.
Following a tense Canadian Grand Prix, which saw Max Verstappen battle seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton for second and eventually secure third place on the podium, Montoya argued that Red Bull is successfully overcoming its recent hurdles.
Speaking on the F1 TV post-race show, the Colombian noted the Laurent Mekies-led team’s effort to shed some excess weight from its car and pointed to the Austrian Grand Prix (26-28 June) as an important milestone for the outfit.
“Yeah, they’re coming. They’re for sure coming. They said by Austria, they’re supposed to have the car completely on weight, not overweight. This is one of the worst circuits to be overweight.
“The penalty here is huge for the weight. So they’ve done a really good job. Both cars, even Isack [Hadjar] did a good job. It’s crazy how much they complained in qualifying about turning on the tyres and how good they were on those first laps. Even after the pitstop, the first lap they took nearly two seconds out of Kimi in one lap and Isack moved forward.
“Both of them looked really, really strong but they were complaining a little bit, the same thing as Liam [Lawson] that the tyres were coming out of the window, that the tyres were cooling down. That is really interesting. The tyres were, in a way, good because you’re not overheating the tyres, but bad because they’re getting to the point that sometimes you get to the corner and you have no grip.
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
“But it was really cool to see how good Max was defending there at the end. And he defended well, and he attacked. I thought he was going to go for it, and I’m going, ‘Oh, I don’t think Lewis is going to move this time.'”
Meanwhile, 1997 F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve, who appeared alongside Montoya on the broadcast, argued that the temperatures in Montreal potentially skewed the performance the team enjoyed.
“It’s hard to take today because it was so cold,” he said. “And it’s not a natural racing weekend in that sense. It’s not a normal track either. Everything is different. They were running their car too stiffly. It was bouncing all over the place. It looks like they softened up a little bit for the race.
“And when a car is too stiff and bounces off, when you put fuel in it, you make it heavier. It gets a little bit better. But we’ll have to see once you get back into the higher temperatures and how everything works out.”
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