It is a sad ending, for the first time in 6 years that I have been following Formula 1 I did not see my favorite racer drive a Grand Prix race. Sadly Juan Pablo Montoya, the hotshot Colombian left Formula 1 as the prospectus for driving in a good team did not materialize. He thought going back to open-wheeled racing in America was a better option. Frank Williams picked him up from the American open wheel racing and introduced him to the world of Formula 1 and since Frank already had two drivers racing his FW’s in 2000, JPM was given the job of the test driver; JPM had impressed Williams by winning the Indianapolis 500 and also NASCAR. In 2001, when he was given the opportunity, did he shine? Winning twice in his debut year (well it could have been thrice if not for a backmarker taking out JPM when he was leading the race) and the only driver daring to over-take the ‘immortal’ Michael Schumacher and having a wonderful battle with him and also bagging FIA’s rookie driver of the year. And backed by Williams the feisty Colombian had a wonderful year in 2003 where he came quite close to winning the championship. He helped the then BMW-Williams team come in as runners-up from 2002 to 2004 and also gave the team their last win at the last race of the year 2004 at Suzuka.
After breaking into the world of F1 JPM was considered to be a champion in the making, and Ron Dennis was quick to sign Montoya for the year 2005 at the end of 2003. Making a shift from Williams to McLaren Montoya had hoped he could achieve what he had set out to, to win the FIA Formula 1 Champion, but this change did not work out for him. Having Kimi as a teammate who was with the team 2 years prior to JPM joining did not help and by the time JPM got into the McLaren groove time had run out, though he won 3 races for McLaren in 2005, 2006 was a diaster. With Ron Dennis again signing a driver much before a season had ended, Alonso the reigning champ is set to drive for Ron Dennis and Kimi holding his decision, JPM was in the waiting for some time and other teams not showing any interest in him, he didn’t want to join a lower team, he had some success in American racing, so he was always at home in the US and called the US GP as his home GP too. With him announcing his departure during mid-season was apparently a breach in his contract and also his Dennis was pleased with JPM’s race results and coupled with the fact that Daimler owns Mercedes and the American company Dodge, which JPM will be driving at NASCAR, JPM got his ticket out of F1. But Dennis is not willing to let JPM get his way through out. Dennis has be quoted as saying JPM is still a contracted driver and his services will be called upon when needed as either a test driver or a GP driver as the contract does not expiry until the end of the year.
I liked the way the Colombian drives, there are a handful of drivers who dared to race Schumi and over take him, JPM is of them and he has overtaken Micheal many times and was one of the drivers who was like “I don’t give a fuck who I am racing!” he pushed anybody who was racing with him, including his teammates. He was master at overtaking (esp. Micheal Schumacher), but his best that I can remember is at Canada in 2003, where he was in the 4th position and Ralf and Kimi were fighting for the 2nd position and when they were approaching the last corner and JPM has just finished his pit-stop and he was trailing them, while Ralf and Kimi are fighting for their spot, JPM comes from the outside and overtakes both of them. It was racing at its best. I will Montoya’s racing.
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