Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes Winning Streak Questioned As Miami GP Luck Claim Made

Three wins from three starts is a hell of a way to begin an F1 career. Kimi Antonelli is now the first driver in history to win his first three Grands Prix from pole position in a row. The record books are being rewritten by a 19-year-old, and yet some of the biggest voices are questioning what his wins have stemmed from.

Juan Pablo Montoya is one of them. Speaking on the F1: Checkered Flag Podcast, Montoya and 1996 world champion Damon Hill got into the specifics of how each of Antonelli’s three victories actually unfolded. On China, he said:

“No. The safetycar thing and George got a little bit on the wrong end of the stick there,” Hill said. Japan was closer to a genuine contest, but Montoya argued the margins still favored the young driver:

“But yes, China, 1000% George should have won,” Montoya continued. “You go to Japan, I think Kimi had a little bit of upper hand. They were really close together and Kimi got a better break. The question is if Kimi would have been the other way around, I think Kimi would have made it through those guys. I don’t think Kimi would have been stuck where George was.”

Montoya wasn’t dismissing Antonelli, though. The argument isn’t that Antonelli is undeserving;. It’s that the combination of car, circumstance, and talent makes it genuinely difficult to know, this early, how much of each is doing the work.

The Miami Grand Prix Made This More Confusing

Antonelli survived a chaotic start, being attacked into Turn 1 before taking to the run-off to avoid Ferrari‘s Charles Leclerc, then having to dodgeMax Verstappen‘s spinning Red Bull. The Italian himself knew it was a bit of luck for him to push through.

“I was a bit lucky with what happened, and then did a mistake with energy management trying to overtake Charles and lost the pace to Lando.”

The moment that made his race in Miami came during his pitstop, when Antonelli entered the pits on lap 26, followed by Norris a lap later. Mercedes overturned a 2.2-second gap in the stops to beat Norris with a solid undercut strategy.

George Russell finished fourth, some 43 seconds behind Antonelli, and has now lost ground at three consecutive races, with his pre-season title favourite status under serious threat.