Rogue Profile of Juan Pablo Montoya

“I am really disappointed about how the race went, although I got two points in the end,” Montoya said after his fifth placed finish. “I started from pole position and got the fastest lap today, it should have been my race. After the start I made a mistake in the first corner, therefore Michael could get in front of me. Afterwards I tried to overtake him again, but he cut across and ripped off my front wing. Again, I am very disappointed.”

Montoya also added that his belief that Schumacher was fair to race against was now shattered.

“I thought he was a fair guy to race with but he is not,” said Montoya. “He was beside me and I gave him room around the first two corners. But then he moved into the middle of the track. I went to the inside. I was behind him but when I made my move he shut the door as soon as he could in front of me. My wing was already hanging off. I had enough speed to pass him there – it’s very disappointing. He loses his front wing (in Malaysia) even though I gave him more room and I get penalised. This time he went in front of me, the way Rubens did with Ralf the race before, and I was even closer. But it’s me who pays the penalty – it just goes on. I had the speed to win that race.”

Schumacher said: “I moved over to the left to avoid him taking the inside, I left the outside open for him and that’s it. I don’t know what happened and I don’t know what makes him unhappy. I didn’t even feel a touch. I have not seen the incident yet and so soon after the race is the wrong time to react to his comments.”

“For the third time in a row I didn’t finish the race after being on pole. At the start I lost the lead to Ralf who passed me at the first hairpin. I didn’t try to protect my position and risk sending the two of us out of the race,” Montoya said. “Then I was struggling massively with the handling of my car. The car was almost undriveable but I still had some laps to go before my pit stop. Eventually I couldn’t help spinning coming into the first corner and I unfortunately hit Coulthard who was close behind me, putting an early end to our race. When I came back to the paddock I apologised to David.”

“It’s been quite a difficult day. At present I am still struggling with the balance of my car a little almost everywhere on the track,” he explained. “Due to the quite slippery nature of this circuit I spun and went off into the gravel during the afternoon session, which caused me to lose some track time. We are now concentrating on the job of improving the car for qualifying.”

After Friday Free Practice, Montoya described Button’s move to BAR for 2003 as
the worst career move the English driver has made. Montoya fully believed that
Villeneuve would undermine Button’s true potential next year, leaving him worthless,
the 1997 FIA Champion mentally destroying the young Englishman.

"Jacques is going to do that for sure at the beginning," Montoya
was quoted as saying on the BBC. "Jenson will be quicker than Jacques
in every single test (over the winter) and when they get to the first race, Jacques
will probably out-qualify him by a second or something. Typical Jacques. And then
Jenson’s going to start wondering, what happened? Where did that come from? That’s
the way it happens and if Jenson doesn’t keep his cool…."

According to Montoya, who worked with Villeneuve in Williams back in 1998 as
their designated test driver, he saw the same tactics used on Heinz-Harald Frentzen,
Jacques teammate at the time. However, at the moment it appears as if BAR teammate
Olivier Panis gets the upper hand a lot, outperforming the ex-champ, but Montoya
believes Jacques is holding back somewhat.

Montoya’s bid to claim his sixth successive pole position failed when he made
an error on his final run under braking for the chicane. Michael Schumacher was
ahead of him on the track and the Colombian was in an aggressive mood, too aggressive
of a mood, as things would transpire. Under braking he locked his Williams’ left
front wheel and for the second time in the session he indulged in an off track
excursion, relegating him to a second row position for the race.

"On my first flying lap I was struggling with quite a lot of understeer
and sliding through the gravel trap. Afterwards I was able to improve," he
explained. "But on my last outing I made a mistake at the hairpin. I locked
the front tyres there. That was it. But after having achieved five poles in a
row I can cope with starting from second row. For the race I am quite confident,
even though I believe Ferrari will be strong."

After a poor start Montoya was left fighting Raikkonen for seventh place. Kimi
was in aggressive mood and was pressuring Montoya hard. The two drivers, side
by side through the first two corners of lap twenty-two. The McLaren was clearly
the faster car but Montoya would not yield and as he pushed the limits to stay
ahead but he understeered off the track at turn three. The Williams slid over
the kerb before it bounced hard over the grass, destroying part of its front turning
veins. Montoya took to the pits at the end of the lap for his tyre stop and have
the damage to his Williams inspected before he rejoined the track.

"This wasn’t my weekend. This track is not one of my favourites. Right
after the start someone hit me, then I went off on a kerb and lost a piece of
body-work," he explained. "Due to the ongoing understeer I had,
my left elbow is hurting. From time to time today my car was almost impossible
to drive. I couldn’t get good balance for the whole weekend."

Juan Pablo Montoya suffered a heavy shunt in the final minutes of Friday’s second
practice session that saw his FW24 virtually destroyed; thankfully he was unharmed.
It was late in the session and Montoya was pushing hard to make up ground to the
twin McLaren’s when he hooked a wheel over the kerb coming through the first Degner
right-hander and slammed into the tyre barrier at the next corner. The force of
the collision ripped a rear wheel off the Williams and free of its tethers.

"It was a smooth session if it hadn’t been for the last part of it.
In the last minutes I had a bad crash which damaged my car quite heavily,"
Montoya said. "I went on the throttle like always and I thought I
was going to make the corner fine but instead I went over the sharp part of the
kerb and lost the car. The impact was hard and I am still a bit sore. With regards
to the balance of my car there’s still room for improvement."

On lap thirty-three Juan Pablo Montoya came in for his first pit stop, rejoining
in sixth in front of the battle between Jarno Trulli and Jacques Villeneuve. This
was all well and good but his car was fuelled to go much further into the race
and his strategy had been severely compromised. Montoya later admitted that he
had read the wrong pit board.

"We did everything to try and not get a podium," fumed Patrick
Head. "He came into the pits for his pit stop when he had lots of fuel
on board for many more laps, so why he came in we don’t know. We’ll have to look
at it afterwards."

On lap forty-five, Juan Pablo-Montoya threw away all his hard work with a spin
in turn one, handing the race win to McLaren’s David Coulthard on a silver platter.
Exiting the chicane, Montoya put the power down but for some reason he was unable
to explain, the rear tyres lost grip and the car switched ends before it lightly
touched the belted tyre barrier. Montoya was able to continue but not even the
Colombian was able to say whether gremlins had been re-coding his traction -control
software or that he had caused the spin himself.

"In spite of this good outcome I must say this was a pretty disastrous
race for me. We started on dry tyres and this was an excellent decision but then
the safety car came out twice and just cancelled our advantage both times. Then
when I finally got the lead again I went into turn one and simply went sideways
when I picked up the throttle," he explained. "It was absolutely
my fault, but also the only mistake I made this weekend. In my second pit stop
I did not change tyres as they were excellent and I was sure the car would be
less competitive on new tyres. The last laps were very difficult as I felt a lot
of pressure from Kimi Raikkonen."

In Friday’s wet qualifying session, Montoya was on the third driver to take his flying lap. In the first sector, he was the most committed driver of the day but in sector two, his zeal for speed would be his undoing. Coming into Ferradura, he locked his FW25′s brakes and he slid wide onto the asphalt that had replaced the gravel trap on the outside of the bend.

“I lost the rear of the car on the asphalt change, locked the rear tyres at turn six and went off track losing quite a bit of time,” Juan Pablo said. “I obviously lost my flying lap there. The car felt quite bad on the new asphalt in the infield, anyway. Let’s hope for some dry running tomorrow.”

For Juan Pablo-Montoya the second safety car period (following Firman’s lap-eighteen
accident) was a gift from the gods. After the Colombian had displayed an over
exuberance reminiscent of Gilles Villeneuve following the first safety car period,
his tyres were left considerably lacking and a pit stop was required.

The safety car pulled in on lap twenty-three and Montoya was battling with
Barrichello and da Matta aided by fresh intermediate tyres. However, his new runner
did him no good when he hit the cross track stream at turn three, aquaplaned onto
the grass under acceleration before piling into the tyre barriers, smashing his
FW25.

"After about 20 laps the track was fairly dry almost everywhere apart
from turn three where there was still too much water and I lost the car. Everyone
who went off there had the same problem that I had, they were sliding too much
because of aquaplaning."