Complex sentence: The car started the season in the hands of Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya, but after a few races it soon became clear that it was not as competitive as its predecessor, the MP4-20.
Split into simpler sentences: The car started the season in the hands of Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya. But after a few races it soon became clear that it was not as competitive as its predecessor, the MP4-20.