Juan Pablo Montoya thinks pitting the 2026 Formula 1 drivers against each other in rental karts would be “incredibly fun to see”.
Verstappen took to Silverstone for a unique challenge against 100 drivers, earlier this month.
Racing go-karts on a bespoke circuit, Red Bull pitted the likes of journalists, presenters and content creators against the might of the four-time F1 World Champion.
Starting from the very back of the pack, Verstappen was given 30 laps to see if he could overtake 100 karts. He did the job in only 14 laps, overtaking a whopping 63 drivers on the very first lap.
Speaking on the MontoyAS podcast, Montoya commended the Milton-Keynes-based team on this unique initiative.
“It was really, really cool, both the event itself and the idea behind it,” he said.
“Red Bull normally does things in the mountains, in the snow, and on descents. People start at the back and have to overtake as many others as possible.
“Sometimes they do that with downhill or endurance. It is really, really cool.”
Montoya suggests pitting F1 drivers against each other in karts for “fun”
On paper, pitting someone like Verstappen against inexperienced drivers would seem like a write off.
But Montoya argued that navigating through a swarm of drivers, inexperienced or not, is in itself a challenge, especially on a karting track.
“It is interesting to see how a driver handles that,” he added.
“They can drive fast, of course, but they can’t just drive everyone off the track.”
The former Williams and McLaren driver then suggested the entire current F1 grid to take on such a challenge amongst each other, albeit without the cameras to really see the gloves come off.
“Personally, I think that would be incredibly fun to see,” Montoya began.
“It would be very interesting to put all the current drivers in a rental kart and see who would win.
“Just turn off the cameras and don’t record anything at all. If you then give them the karts, they would have a huge amount of fun.
“That would be really cool. It would be really great for the drivers. It would be really good for them.”
Verstappen’s victory at Silverstone was ironically his first of the season, with the Dutchman unable to drag the RB22 to P1 yet in 2026.
READ MORE – McLaren makes major announcement with new ‘evolved identity’
Discussion about this post