Juan Pablo Montoya hits out at hypocritical Lewis Hamilton Red Bull claim

Sam Cooper
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton at the Spanish Grand Prix. Barcelona, June 2023.

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton at the Spanish Grand Prix. Barcelona, June 2023.

Juan Pablo Montoya has highlighted the hypocrisy of Lewis Hamilton wanting rule changes to halt Red Bull’s progress after his years dominating the sport.

Ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, Hamilton suggested that the FIA should impose a limit as to when teams can start planning for next year with the likes of Red Bull already keeping one eye on 2024 considering how far ahead they are of the competition.

That idea was quickly shot down by Max Verstappen, who raised the point that Hamilton never advocated for such a rule when he was on top and the Dutchman was not the only one to point out that hypocrisy.

Montoya said everyone was “happy” for Hamilton when he dominated,

“It’s funny because Lewis keeps coming out and saying ‘it’s unfair, it’s unfair’,” Montoya told MyBettingSites.co.uk. “He’s already predicting that Max is going to win next year but you look back at his period of dominance – ‘was it you, was it the car?’

“We were all happy for you when you dominated.”

Since Hamilton’s period of dominance, the cost cap has been introduced which has also made it harder for teams to make sweeping changes should they find themselves behind the opposition. But Montoya believes the cap has also been a positive for the sport and has made the grid more competitive.

“It’s what it is but what is very intriguing is that you now go on race weekends and you don’t know who’ll be fighting who. It used to be really predictive, you had Mercedes, then Red Bull and then you had Ferrari and then everybody else. Whereas now you have the Red Bull and everybody else.

PlanetF1.com recommends

F1 driver contracts: What is the current contract status of every driver on the 2023 grid?

Fastest F1 pit stops: McLaren keep pressure on Red Bull with Silverstone effort

“You look at from 3rd to 12th, you have no idea what’s going to happen. You even look at the Williams and they’re qualifying 10th or 12th. They’re there.

“So I think the rules have been really good for the sport. They have closed the gap. I think the budget caps, in a way, have really worked.

“And you have to say, Red Bull made a really massive step in their car and they really know what they’re doing and they figured it out better than anybody else. But everybody else seems to be in this bubble and that makes for great motorsport. It’s giving people things to talk about.”

Read next: The AlphaTauri ‘weakness’ that could trip up Daniel Ricciardo in his Red Bull quest