Juan Pablo Montoya reveals: This should be a cause for concern for Mercedes’ rivals

What had already become apparent during pre-season testing was confirmed at the start of the season: Mercedes is the team to beat this year and is setting the pace. This is also reflected in the figures: one of the Mercedes drivers has won eight of the eleven Grands Prix so far this year, with the first six GP victories all going to one of the two Mercedes drivers.

Kimi Antonelli leads the World Championship by 50 points, but his closest challenger is not his team-mate George Russell, but his predecessor Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time world champion is one of three rivals to the Mercedes drivers who have secured a Grand Prix victory this year. The other two are his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc and world champion Lando Norris, who won the most recent race on the outskirts of the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

These rivals were able to celebrate these victories because they were quick to follow up with updates to their cars. Mercedes has so far held back on updates, and Juan Pablo Montoya believes this should be a cause for concern for their rivals. The Grand Prix veteran explained in an interview with the betting provider ‘www.betpack.com’: ‘Mercedes hasn’t brought any major updates to the track so far, whilst all the other teams have, and they’re still right up there in terms of pace. From that perspective, the other teams should be worried.’

“From Mercedes’ point of view, it’s simple: the longer the team can stay at the top without making improvements to the car, the more money is left over for development with a view to next year,” the Colombian calculates. And he emphasises: “The question is whether Mercedes needs to put itself in an awkward position.”

Montoya is convinced: “At Zandvoort, McLaren will be very, very fast, and Red Bull Racing will also be quite competitive, especially with Max Verstappen, as he’ll certainly want to show what he’s capable of at his home race. We’ll also see a really strong performance from Ferrari, so the field will be bunched up, and the level of competition will be so high that Mercedes won’t be happy about it.”

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So what must the frontrunner do? The seven-time Grand Prix winner’s answer is clear: “Mercedes has no choice; to stay ahead, the team must bring a major update. Everyone else has played their hand by the end of the season. So when Mercedes brings the next package onto the track, I reckon they’ll be even further ahead of the rest. The team holds all the aces.”