Juan Pablo Montoya ‘surprised’ by what Oscar Piastri did during Max Verstappen battle in Abu Dhabi

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Oscar Piastri was the penultimate driver to pit during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The McLaren star left it until lap 41 out of 58 to complete his mandatory tyre change.

Clearly, Piastri was taking a strategic gamble in the hope of reviving his unlikely title bid. Perhaps the hope was that a timely safety car would allow him to make a cheap stop, but there wasn’t so much as a yellow flag during the race.

Piastri was 16 points behind Lando Norris when the lights went out and, while he brilliantly passed his teammate on the opening lap, his eventual P2 was only enough to cut the gap to 13.

Finish the sentence: In his Formula 1 career, Oscar PIastri will win ____ titles

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The Australian tried to hunt down race leader Verstappen after his late stop, but the gap at the chequered flag was over 12.5 seconds.

Juan Pablo Montoya expected Oscar Piastri to put up a bigger fight against Max Verstappen

Piastri led the race after Verstappen pitted on lap 23, but the Dutchman was much quicker on new tyres. He reeled him in and executed a simple, DRS-assisted pass on lap 41.

Verstappen was still behind in the braking zone but had far more grip, allowing him to slip down the inside into the turn six/seven chicane.

Speaking on his AS Colombia podcast, Juan Pablo Montoya suggested that Piastri could have put up more of a fight. Perhaps it could have been a last stand in the title race, although it was always likely to be a losing battle.

“I think one of the reasons Red Bull didn’t back up [the pack] was because Oscar was going to be more aggressive,” Montoya said. “We expected Oscar to be more aggressive.

“I was also surprised that, when Max came to pass Oscar, Oscar didn’t do anything to block him.”

Montoya also thought Verstappen would be bolder, but rather than using any controversial tactics, he simply drove his own race and hoped that Norris ran into trouble.

‘People have a mouse’s memory’ – Juan Pablo Montoya on Oscar Piastri’s season

When it was put to Montoya that Verstappen was the best driver in 2025, he pushed back. He acknowledges that the Red Bull superstar was ‘very good’ in the last stretch of races, but gave credit to his rivals at McLaren.

He says Piastri was the standout performer in the early rounds, when he won four out of six. Norris then hit form before the summer break with wins in Austria, Great Britain and Hungary.

“Verstappen wasn’t the best driver in the middle of the year, it was Lando,” Montoya said. “At the beginning of the year, the best driver was Oscar.

“The problem is that [in] the last races, Max did a very good job, people have a mouse’s memory and forget what happened a while ago.”

Verstappen won the most races of any driver with eight, while the McLaren pair took seven victories apiece.