Juan Pablo Montoya SLAMS McLaren Over “Fear of Making Decisions” After Qatar GP chaos

Juan Pablo Montoya criticized McLaren's fear at the Qatar GP that ultimately cost them the race win and ruined Oscar Piastri's title chances.

Juan Pablo Montoya SLAMS McLaren Over “Fear of Making Decisions” After Qatar GP chaos

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris (via F1), Juan Pablo Montoya (via Getty)

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McLaren was among the few teams that put forth a highly disappointing outing at the Qatar GP. Despite dominating the track since the beginning of the weekend with Oscar Piastri, the team committed major blunders that cost him the race win. Now, ex-F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya fires some shots at Woking because of their fears in making crucial strategic calls during the race.

Oscar Piastri was on par to achieve a clean sweep of the Qatar GP after winning the Sprint race and topping the Qualifying session as well. Moreover, Lando Norris started in P2 and could’ve maximized points for the Papaya Squad. However, an ‘interesting move’ to not pit under the safety car ruined the entire race for both Piastri and Norris. Both drivers were understandably upset from this occurrence, especially at such a point in the championship.

Juan Pablo Montoya delivered his candid opinion on the matter and how McLaren walked out of the Qatar GP as the biggest losers over the weekend. Oscar Piastri had claimed that it was a pretty obvious mistake to not pit under the safety car, while many people thought that there were issues within the Chain of Command at Woking. Montoya reckoned that it was something different this time around.

The Spaniard boldly claimed that McLaren was very afraid of making decisions in the heat of the moment. Juan Pablo Montoya explained that the British constructor was so afraid of screwing up on track that they couldn’t see the bigger picture clearly. He reckoned that trying not to make mistakes caused the team to make even more silly errors that could have been avoided to preserve Oscar Piastri’s races.

I think they’re so afraid of making decisions. They’re so afraid of screwing it up that a lot of times, when you’re afraid of making [bad] decisions, you end up making them.

Juan Pablo Montoya said on the F1 TV Post-Race Show.

Juan Pablo Montoya claims McLaren was ‘very afraid’ at the Qatar GP

The Qatar GP was very crucial for McLaren as both their drivers are fighting for the driver’s title. The team wanted to provide a fair chance to both drivers and hence decided not to pit either of them under the safety car. This meant that Woking was afraid to offend either Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris and hence ultimately committed the blunder in Qatar.

Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)
Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)

Juan Pablo Montoya noted that the team was indeed very afraid of making the tough call. Montoya noted that the team believed to had enough pace to build a gap at the forefront. Further, Lando Norris’ pitting for Hard compounds was yet another surprise to him as the former suffered on those tires throughout the weekend. Montoya insisted that the team should have held Max Verstappen back a little longer and pitted for softs.

I think they were so afraid. They thought he had enough pace to get away with it. So that for me was the first surprise. The last surprise was Lando going to hards. After we spoke in practice, he hated them. He couldn’t drive the car on the hards. They went to the softs, he looked really competitive, and the mediums looked really competitive. Hold Max a little longer and go to softs.

Juan Pablo Montoya added.

Regardless of the comments now, the race is over for McLaren, and they lost out massively over the weekend. Neither the drivers nor the team was happy with the things that happened on Sunday. However, the Abu Dhabi GP is up next, and Woking must put up a better fight in the upcoming race to maximize Lando Norris’ championship-winning chances.

Also Read: Lando Norris Blames Qatar GP Pitstop “Gamble” After Disappointing Loss to Max Verstappen