Former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes Mercedes sent McLaren a strategy warning following Kimi Antonelli’s impressive victory at the Miami Grand Prix.
The Colombian warned the Woking outfit that its conservative approach to race management will ultimately cost it important victories.
Speaking ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix on F1 TV, Montoya reflected on Antonelli’s win over defending champion Lando Norris in Miami. “I think it was really good. It was a very good statement for Mercedes as well on strategy,” Montoya said.
“They did a really good job because they didn’t get off the line that well, as we said earlier. Mercedes is not afraid of being aggressive and going for it, a little bit like Red Bull does. So, McLaren really needs to look at it and go, ‘If we don’t have the car we had last year and the advantage, we need to be aggressive and make really good calls.’ I think that’s one thing they need to step up.”
Montoya’s critique of McLaren deepened when he analysed specific moments of the race at the Miami International Autodrome. He pointed out that the Andrea Stella-led team initially held a comfortable margin over Mercedes but failed to anticipate the power of the undercut.
“Well, they have upgrades as well. Everybody’s talking about how they made a huge step in Miami, and they’re bringing a lot of stuff here again, and I think that’s going to play a part, but they don’t have a superior car at the moment,” he added.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Juan Pablo Montoya
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images via Getty Images
“So, if they have a car that may have a chance of winning, you need to take risks. You need to try something different, because if you go with the standard strategy, they had a two-second lead and as soon as Mercedes stopped, they should have gone, ‘Oh we need to take this because it’s a huge difference on the out-lap’, and they didn’t.
“I think that they thought they had enough of a gap and they were too conservative, they didn’t react fast enough, and if they want to bring the trophies home, they’re going to have to do something.”
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