Juan Pablo Montoya
Juan Pablo Montoya breathed Latin fire into Formula One on his belated entrance in 2001 but, having made his mark on the Champ Car scene prior to joining Williams, struggled to ignite the flames of battle with Michael Schumacher as many would have hoped.
Ironically, the Colombian might not have achieved his US success had it not been for Williams signing Alex Zanardi from Chip Ganassi and sending Montoya over to America as a replacement. While the Italian struggled to re-adjust to F1, Montoya made hay in the USA.
Juan Pablo began his racing career at the tender age of five, competing in the Colombian Komet karting class, and winning both local and national titles. As he grew older, Montoya progressed to higher classes, eventually contesting the 1990 and 1991 world championships. His first taste of car racing came with the renowned Skip Barber School in America, before moving onto a Swift GTi the following year. Success came quickly, too, with seven poles and seven wins in the latter series.
A return to Skip Barber in 1994 landed Montoya third place in the then Saab Pro Series, all the while competing in both karting and car racing in South America. The following year continued in much the same vein, with the Colombian transferring to Britain to race in the Formula Vauxhall series with Paul Stewart Racing. Four wins, four poles and two lap records finally netted another third overall, and set Juan up for a crack at the prestigious British F3 championship.
Montoya, ever keen to reach the top, spent just one year in F3, notching two wins, one pole position and five fastest laps, before moving on again, this time to the International F3000 series. Running with Marko RSM, the Colombian made a strong start, taking two wins in his rookie season, and landing himself a drive with the crack Super Nova outfit for 1998. Champions in the past, the team was just the backing Montoya needed, and he duly took the title on the back of four wins and seven pole positions, edging out the likes of Nick Heidfeld, Gonzalo Rodriguez and Jason Watt in the process.
His title campaign was supplemented by test-driving duties for the crack Williams GP squad, and it was performances in both cars that drew him to the attention of the racing world. Many expected Montoya to step into the shoes of either Jacques Villeneuve or Heinz-Harald Frentzen when they both departed the Williams team for 1999, but he eventually lost out to Ralf Schumacher and the aforementioned returning Zanardi.
Not content to be confined to testing, Montoya scouted for other outlets for his talent, and was happy to take the offer of a drive in the CART series when Williams mooted an exchange deal for Zanardi. The rest, as they say, is history, with the young Colombian going on to dominate his rookie season. Consecutive wins in Long Beach, Nazareth and Rio de Janeiro provided an early season hat-trick, and a further four wins - accompanied by seven pole positions - were enough to seal his double success. It was also Ganassi's fourth straight title, and marked Montoya out as a special talent.
Despite rumours that he might transfer back to Europe as replacement for the struggling Alex Zanardi in 2000, the Colombian stayed with the Chip Ganassi operation for a second season in Champ Cars. Again partnered by Jimmy Vasser, he was many people's favourite for back-to-back titles, but had to turn the all-new Lola-Toyota combination into a winner to do so. In the end, the task defeated him, leaving him a lowly ninth in the series. He did however have the considerable kudos of notching a rookie win in the Indianapolis 500 with Ganassi’s Target machine. Leading 167 of the 200 laps, He became the first Colombian winner of this ‘Blue Riband’ event, and the first rookie to win since Graham Hill in 1966.
Frank Williams decided he had what it took to succeed in Formula 1 and, shipping another rookie - Jenson Button - off to Benetton for two years, exercised his option on Montoya for 2001. The Colombian had already shown commendable pace in testing, alongside established Williams’ driver Ralf Schumacher, and was being tipped as a potential race winner before the year got underway in anger. There was little love lost between the two 'team-mates', and it proved interesting to watch who got the upper hand on and off the track.
Schumacher struck first, by making the most of Montoya's acclimatisation from Champ Cars and winning in San Marino. This was not before the Colombian had frightened the German's brother in Brazil, however, where he deserved to win before being assaulted by Jos Verstappen's lapped Arrows. Williams, despite its results, suffered a poor year reliability-wise - and Montoya seemed to bear the brunt of it. Although there were a few accidents on behalf of both drivers, the Colombian was thwarted on more than one occasion by mechanical problems, and it was not until round five in Spain – where he finished second – that he opened his F1 account. From then on, great drives were interspersed with unreliability, until victory number one finally arrived at Monza. By this time – and in spite of having notched up three wins of his own – Schumacher was looking the more frail of the pair, and Montoya went on to end the year strongly with an inspired second place in Japan.
At the start of 2002, Ralf appeared to have recovered and it was the German who took BMW WilliamsF1's only win of the year, at the Malaysian GP in March. In qualifying though, Juan stunned the F1 paddock, not only taking five consecutive poles beginning in Monte Carlo GP in May, but also by setting the fastest seen F1 lap for pole at the Italian GP. By the season's end, the Colombian was arguably going faster than his team-mate and, in the final tally, Montoya took third place in the drivers' championship, one place ahead of Schumacher Jr.
The 2003 season saw Montoya really come to the fore, joining a three-way battle for the title with Kimi Räikkönen and Michael Schumacher. He made it tough, however, as, at the opening grand prix of the season, the Colombian threw away the chance of victory when he spun while leading, and then picked up just seven more points in the next five races. Victory in the rich man's playground of Monte Carlo saw Montoya's season pick up, starting a run of eight consecutive podium finishes, including a stunning win at Hockenheim, when he finished over a minute clear of the field.
Going into the final two races of the season, Montoya was back in with a shot at his first F1 title, but it all fell apart at the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis. First, he was hit with a drive-through penalty for an incident with Barrichello, and then was unlucky with the timing of his pit-stops when the race was hit by rain. With his title chances over, Montoya surged away at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix before retiring with hydraulic problems. Despite finishing third in the title race, Montoya was left disappointed, believing that the stewards' decision to penalise him in America had cost him his title chance.
Before the 2004 season even started, Montoya decided he would leave Williams in 2005, and opted to sign a deal with Team McLaren-Mercedes. The year was a big disappointment as the Williams-BMW FW26 wasn't as competitive as hoped and, despite an improvement during the year; Montoya was made to wait until the final race in Brazil to take his only win of the year. This followed twelve other points' finishes, two of which were on the podium with second in Malaysia and third at Imola - leaving him fifth overall in the drivers' championship with 58 points.
Montoya's McLaren career did not really off as expected. Sidelined by an injured shoulder – reportedly whilst playing tennis – for two races and then beleagured by technical failures on his return, the Colombian did not help his cause with avoidable driver errors. However mid- season things began to click for Montoya who won the Britsh Grand Prix in commanding style and then added wins at Monza and Interlagos, although there were still other avoidable errors which left him only fourth in the overall standings.
Montoya and team mate Kimi Räikkönen began the 2006 season in the knowledge that Fernando Alonso was already guaranteed on of the seats in the team for 2007, and it seemed to affected the Colombian more than the Finn. Already out-of favour with team prinicipal Ron Dennis after his ‘tennis’ injury, was further marginalized in the team after a wretched race in Melbourne which ended in him damaging the car after running over a kerb. Two further disastrous races followed. In Canada he clipped a wall and broke his suspension, and at Indianapolis ran into the back of his team mate on the opening lap eliminating both. Disenchanted with his position at McLaren, and Formula 1 in general, Montoya made a mid-season announcement that he had reached an agreement to join his former employer Chip Ganassi in NASAR for 2007.
Just as rapidly, McLaren, removed the Colombian from his race seat and he was contractually forced to sit out much of the rest of the year before making a fiery Nextel Cup race debut at Homestead. Running a solid race, Juan Pablo’s car was pitched into the wall rupturing a fuel cell, causing the car to be engulfed in flames and halting the race. Fortunately Montoya emerged unscathed, and enthusiastically prepared himself for a new racing career in his luridly liveried #07 Dodge Avenger.
2007 started brightly for the Colombian, who shared the riving duties in Ganassi team’s Riley-Lexus with Scott Pruett and Savador Duran as they won the Rolex Daytona 24 hours.
