Juan Pablo Montoya reckons McLaren has turned into a team that is hard to stop. Given Lando Norris has won the last two races on the bounce, it is tempting to nod along. Given he still sits 83 points behind Kimi Antonelli with eleven rounds left, it is worth asking whether Montoya is watching form or fantasy.
The former F1 driver made his case on F1 TV’s Weekend Warm-Up show ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, arguing that McLaren has shed the caution that defined its title defence and started playing to win rather than playing not to lose. It is a flattering read of a team that, by points alone, is still the third force in this championship behind Mercedes and Ferrari.
From Nervous Favourite to Reckless Underdog
Montoya’s argument hinges on a shift in mentality rather than raw pace. Last year, he says, McLaren had the fastest car and still played it safe, terrified of throwing away wins with a strategic misstep. This year, with Mercedes dominant on points and Antonelli sitting on top of the standings, McLaren has nothing to protect and everything to chase.
“The combination we’re seeing is a McLaren that is growing, a McLaren that is starting to put everything together, a McLaren that is not afraid of taking risks with strategy.” – Juan Pablo Montoya
It is a neat theory, and the results at the Hungarian and Dutch Grands Prix back it up on the surface. Lando Norris won both, the second of those coming despite Antonelli finishing right behind him in second. Momentum is real. Whether it is title-winning momentum is another matter entirely, given the gap Norris is trying to close.
The Numbers Montoya Left Out
Here is the awkward bit nobody on the Weekend Warm-Up sofa seemed keen to dwell on. Antonelli has 242 points to Norris’s 159. That is an 83-point gap with 11 races to go. Two wins have narrowed things at the margins, but Antonelli was second and third in those same two races, which means the gap barely moved. McLaren “going for broke” has produced fireworks, not a title swing.
Montoya’s “hard to stop” line works better as a description of a driver rediscovering rhythm than as a prediction of a coronation. Norris looks sharper, McLaren looks braver, and neither of those things guarantees anyone catches a Mercedes driver with a lead this size and a car this consistent.
“And when you start doing things like that, and it works, the confidence in the team and the people around you just grows, and it’s going to be hard to stop him.” – Juan Pablo Montoya
Piastri Left Behind by His Own Team-mate
Montoya’s more interesting observation was not really about Norris at all. It was about how far Oscar Piastri has drifted from the sharp end of this fight. Piastri sits seventh in the standings on 104 points, a gap of 138 to the championship leader, and Montoya put his finger on why the MCL40 seems to suit one driver far more than the other right now.
“He’s doing a really good job in qualifying. He’s always there. On one lap he’s driving really comfortably and when he’s in the right compound for him he’s very quick, but for some reason when he now seems to be on a hotter tyre, the car seems to be tricky to drive. I don’t think they’ve found the sweet spot for him.” – Juan Pablo Montoya
Montoya was careful to push back on the lazy narrative that Norris is simply driving better. His point is more nuanced and, frankly, more damning for McLaren’s engineering department: Piastri has not lost pace, he has lost trust in the car underneath him.
“Lando’s just comfortable with the car, and when you trust the car, you can come off the brakes, you can roll the car in, you can throw the car in when you’re going to turn in. If you don’t know what the car is going to do, you’re never going to release the brakes as well. You’re never going to carry that speed. And that’s a big difference.” – Juan Pablo Montoya
Monza Arrives With New Toys
McLaren’s growing confidence gets a fresh test this weekend at the Italian Grand Prix, where the team is finally rolling out its version of the so-called Macarena rear wing, an active system nicknamed the H-wing after the letter in sponsor Etihad’s logo. It first appeared on track during a practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix but was shelved before qualifying and the race, which tells you plenty about how much McLaren trusted it at the time. Ferrari and Red Bull have been running similar systems since winter testing, so McLaren is playing catch-up on a track where straight-line speed decides races.
The MCL40 has a reputation for dragging its feet on the straights, so a device built purely to cut drag arriving at the one circuit built purely for top speed is not a coincidence. McLaren has also brought revised floor components aimed at cleaning up airflow and shedding more drag without giving up downforce elsewhere. None of that guarantees a result. It does suggest a team willing to gamble its Monza weekend on a system it did not trust enough to race a few weeks ago, which fits neatly with Montoya’s theory even if the outcome remains unproven.
Friday practice at Monza is already under way, with FP2 running from 14:00 UTC, check the calendar for your local time. Qualifying and the race follow on Saturday and Sunday respectively, and that is really where any “hard to stop” claim gets tested properly, not on a TV sofa.
A Warning Worth Taking With a Pinch of Salt
Montoya is not wrong that something has changed at McLaren. The team that spent last year nursing a car advantage into a title has become one willing to bolt on unproven aerodynamic gadgets and back its lead driver’s instincts over its own caution. That is a genuine shift, and it is producing wins.
But an 83-point gap with 11 races remaining is not a footnote, it is the story. Norris and McLaren look better than they have all season. Whether “hard to stop” turns into “actually stopped Antonelli” depends on whether two wins become a habit rather than a hot streak, and right now the standings suggest Mercedes has far more room to absorb a bad weekend than McLaren does to keep winning every one of them.
