Despite a disappointing 17th-place finish in the 2024 FIA Formula 3 championship, Sebastián Montoya—son of seven-time F1 race winner Juan Pablo Montoya—steps up to F2 for the 2025 season. The Red Bull junior will partner with 2024 F3 runner-up Gabriele Minì at PREMA Racing, replacing Oliver Bearman and Kimi Antonelli who will race in F1 with the MoneyGram Haas and Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 teams respectively.
PREMA worked to get all-rookie line-up “up to speed” ahead of pre-season tests
With an all-rookie line-up, PREMA has spent the winter break trying to get their drivers “up to speed”, as though Minì has a race weekend, and a third-place finish, under his belt, his and Montoya’s combined experience cannot compare to the many months of experience that some of their rivals will bring into the 2025 F2 season.
While speaking with the media, including Pit Debrief, Montoya stated that the team was aware of the challenges of fielding two rookies in 2025, and had not spared any effort to prepare them for the 2025 F2 pre-season tests.
“It’s two rookies and Gabriele already has a race under his belt, so it helps quite a bit. But obviously, the team, their biggest goal was to prepare us as much as we could for the test and get us up to speed right away.”
“A lot of time and effort” to master the F2 car
Despite their preparations, Montoya admitted that adjusting to the F2 car had been difficult. Echoing his new teammate’s words, he described the car as heavier and more powerful and noted differences in its tyres and operation.
“Obviously, it’s quite difficult because it’s quite a different car. As Gabriele said, it’s a lot more powerful, it’s a lot heavier, the tyres are different, the procedures are different.”
Montoya added that due to these differences, the team had spent a significant amount of time and effort to ensure that their rookie drivers mastered control of the car and would be comfortable behind its wheel.
“So obviously, making sure you master all of this, they put a lot of time and effort to make sure we got it right away.”
Rookies getting “straight into the fight”
Though he understands the challenges of having to adapt to a new series, and the level of competition in it, Montoya does not not believe that being a rookie excludes a driver from the championship fight. He highlighted the success of Dino Beganovic, now with Hitech TGR, who scored 22 points from the final two rounds of the 2024 F2 championship, as well as that of his new teammate Minì who finished on the podium on his F2 debut weekend, after an impressive sprint race in Baku.
These performances, like that of Gabriel Bortoleto who took the 2024 F2 championship title and subsequently earned a move to the Stake F1 Team for 2025, have, as Montoya pointed out, shown that rookies, despite their inexperience, are capable of fighting for podiums and wins in F2.
“But yeah, to be honest, besides that, there’s nothing much I think I have to say because these rookies have been getting up to speed quite quickly. There’s been a lot of rookies in the fight.”
“For example, Dino last year in Abu Dhabi, he did an amazing weekend; Gabriele in Baku. And just pretty much all the rookies right away, they’ve always been straight into the fight. So that’s quite positive.”
Montoya “to get on with it” as he hopes to fight for 2025 F2 championship
While Montoya acknowledges that neither he nor his team will have a proper idea of how the 2025 F2 season will treat them, until they can assess themselves under proper race conditions in Melbourne, he does not believe that his or his teammate’s inexperience gives them an excuse to not be in the fight for the championship title.
“And yeah, at the end of the day, you really have to wait till you get to Australia. Because even though we’re all at the same track, everyone has a bit more preparation, everyone has a bit more experience than us. But at the end of the day, you’re all racing for the same thing.”
“So I wouldn’t really look at it as a downside or benefit or anything. But it is what it is. And you just have to get on with it in a kind of way because there’s no excuses.“
He stated that he expects a long, tight championship, and highlighted the need for drivers to put themselves in the fight for the title from the start.
“And it’s a long [and] tight championship. And right from the get-go, you have to try to be in the fight.“
This, he believes, is a driver’s responsibility to his team, as he can only maximise his opportunities if he has put himself in the best position to do so.
“And that’s your responsibility with the team to make sure you’re in the best position to be able to give yourself the best opportunity.”
Montoya trusts his team after three positive years in lower series
Montoya is especially encouraged to put in his best effort in 2025 as he shares a strong relationship with his team.
“I trust a lot in the team,” the Colombian-American driver insisted, recalling his previous experiences with them in F4 and the Formula Regional European Championship (FRECA).
He said, “I raced with them for a long time. I did three years with them—two years in F4 when you’re in regional and I trust a lot the team.”
PREMA “very motivated” to do “the best job” after 2024 challenges
Montoya’s trust is strong, despite PREMA’s challenging 2024 season. When asked if the Italian team had overcome the difficulties that had plagued their 2024 season, the Colombian-American driver stated that the team had used these difficulties as motivation to improve. Montoya explained that the team is determined to win, and had spent the winter break analysing their performance to avoid similar issues in the 2025 F2 season.
“I know that they want to win quite badly and I know that’s what drives the team forward. I know they’re very motivated to do the best job they can and they understand and they know that last year they struggled at times and they tried really hard in the winter to understand why they were struggling.”
Montoya, however, believes that PREMA Racing had improved over the 2024 season, noting that they had become more consistent towards its end. This, he identified, showed that the team had understood their issues “quite well” and worked towards overcoming them.
“I think they got a better idea at the end of the season. They were a lot more consistent. They were a lot more at the front and it got to a point where they were on the podium almost every week at the end of the year. So, yeah, the team understood quite well.”
Pre-season testing shows positive progress by PREMA ahead of 2025 F2 season
Montoya is further encouraged by PREMA’s performance in pre-season testing. While testing is rarely a true indicator of a driver’s or team’s potential for the season, Montoya stated that he felt “a bit of a relief” seeing the improvements made over the recent months.
“Obviously, it’s just testing, but at the end of the day, it’s a bit of a relief to see that the work that you’ve been putting in makes a little bit of a change at least for the positive.”
Montoya reiterated that PREMA had done “an amazing job” both to prepare their drivers for the upcoming 2025 season and to help them identify what they needed to work on to achieve continued success.
“All of us, from us as rookies with the team, they’ve done an amazing job to prepare us, but also to make us understand what things we need to improve and understand what are the keys to make [the step-up] for this year.”
