Montoya tips McLaren to rebound from Monaco and push Mercedes hardest in Barcelona

Juan Pablo Montoya has identified McLaren as Mercedes’ most dangerous rival at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, predicting Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will bounce back sharply from a difficult Monaco outing to pressure Kimi Antonelli’s championship-leading team.

Mercedes heads to Spain in commanding form. Antonelli, who tops the drivers’ standings with 156 points, has won five consecutive grands prix, with Lewis Hamilton second on 90 points, George Russell third on 88 and Charles Leclerc fourth on 75. Norris and Piastri sit fifth and sixth, both on 58 points, after Monaco yielded only a retirement for Norris and a fifth-place finish for Piastri.

Montoya, speaking on the F1 TV Weekend Warm-Up show alongside former Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas and former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe, argued that the return to a conventional high-downforce circuit fundamentally changes McLaren’s prospects.

“We went through all the street courses and everything. So, people will start bringing upgrades here. They’re going to look at Austria, and they’re going to look at Silverstone to bring new parts because these tracks are all about downforce,” the Colombian said.

“You look at the McLarens, for example, they really struggled in Monaco, but I think they’re going to be the closest competitors to Mercedes here. I think their aero package is really, really strong.”

Montoya acknowledged that McLaren must also diagnose what went wrong in the principality. “I think for them it’s a big wake-up call. We need to figure out why were we so bad in Monaco and figure it out. But aero-wise, they seem to do a really good job. We need to see if they have the new front wing here, if they have all the parts. So, we’ll see.”

The Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix is the seventh round of the 2026 season and completes a double-header with Monaco, giving teams little time to regroup before facing one of the calendar’s most demanding aerodynamic tests.