Juan Pablo Montoya says Mercedes ahead but asks questions of Ferrari and Aston Martin

Heading to the desert Kingdom, Monotoya also warns expectant Tifosi that Ferrari’s headline lap time could be a red flag rather than a statement of strength. The Colomboan was also musing about the 'noises' surrounding Aston Martin's alleged issues with their first Adrian Newey-penned car.

Assessing the first meaningful mileage of the winter, Montoya said Mercedes continue to set the reference despite avoiding outright pace chasing. He also underlined that Barcelona testing remains a game of misdirection, with true form unlikely to be revealed until this week in Bahrain.

Grand Prix and Indy 500 winner, Montoya told Vision4Sport: “That Mercedes is number one still. Everybody believes Mercedes has the best car. But then Ferrari apparently looked the least comfortable. But until we go into the last day of the second testing period in Bahrain, we will not get a good view of where everybody is.”

He stressed that early upgrades can be counterproductive, explaining that teams guard their strongest developments until later to avoid rivals copying concepts. Montoya added: “If you bring it too early, then people will have time to put it in the wind tunnel and they will gain a month of development. So if you start bringing your best stuff too early then you are going to be in trouble.”

Montoya admitted some of the early reliability and performance trends were unexpected, particularly when comparing established projects with newer operations.

“I mean everybody is talking about the problems with the Aston Martin that is kind of surprising. You would have thought that Aston would have been pretty reliable and you would have thought that the Audi would not be. For me that kind of surprised me as well,” he said.

Montoya also rejected the idea that exploiting grey areas undermines the sport, pointing to historical precedents involving Red Bull and Mercedes as well as past champions.

“Why is Adrian Newey so good? Because he is the best guy out there to find loopholes,” Montoya said. “Why did Jenson Button become world champion? Ross Brawn found a loophole in the diffuser on the back of the car that made the car the quickest on the grid. Was it illegal? No. Was it ethically wrong? You could say yes. But why are we in this sport? This sport is about finding ways to adjust the rules.”

Montoya was clear that Barcelona is traditionally where teams hide their true potential, using fuel loads, tyre choices and timing to disguise performance.

“People are talking about Haas looking really good and the drivers looking comfortable. So if the Haas is good, it means the Ferrari package is pretty good,” he said. “The reality again is if you have a really quick car you want to make sure nobody knows about it.”

He explained that lap time comparisons are heavily influenced by track evolution and timing. “If you go to Barcelona and you did the lap time before 10 a.m., that lap time is a peak grip lap time and it is going to be quicker. If you run the same tyres and fuel at noon, you are going to be six or seven tenths slower,” Montoya said, adding that late afternoon conditions can again reduce the gap.

According to the Colombian, Formula 1 teams, confident in their package, deliberately avoid showing pace. “If you have a really quick car, you make sure you run hard tyres and higher fuel load on those peak times so you do not show pace. It is really a game of bluff and double bluff at the moment.

Montoya was speaking to Vision4Sport, who offer Formula 1 Hospitality Packages.”