| Personal Information |
Name: Juan Pablo Montoya
Birthday: 20 Sep 1975
Debut: Australian GP 2001
City: Monaco
Status: Marriad with Connie
Nationality: 
Official: Website |
| Carreer |
1981-1991: Karting
1992: Col. Formula Renault
1993: Col. Suzuki Swift GTi Cup, Champion
1994: American Formula Barber
Saab, 3th
1995: British Formula Opel
Lotus, 3th
1996: British Formula 3, 5th
1997: Testdriver Williams,
Formula 3000, 2e
1998: Formula 3000-Champion
1999: Champion American CART-series
2000: CART-series, 9th,
Winner Indy 500
2001: F1-début: 6th
(Williams, 31 pnts)
2002: Formula 1: 3th
(Williams, 50 pnts)
2003: Formula 1: 3th
(Williams, 82 pnts)
2003: Formula 1: 5th
(Williams, 58 pnts)
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| Statistics |
All stats are calculated at the start of the 2007 season.
Total Seasons: 0
Total Championships Won: 0
Total Races: 0
Total Points: 0
Total Victories: 0
Total Top3 Finishes: 0
Total Points Finishes: 0
Total Fastest Laps: 0
Total Pole Positions: 0
Total Doubles (Pole & Win): 0
Total Triples (Pole, Win & Lap): 0
Total Leading Laps: 0
Total Leading Km.: 0
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| Biography |
In 2003, Juan was the almost man, so agonisingly close to being the man that ended Michael Schumacher’s dominion. But despite his proximity with history, Montoya remains a phlegmatic character. At the conclusion of his best
season in Formula One, he reflected in Suzuka, “You can always say if this had not happened or that had not happened but in the end the result is all that matters”. His response belies a growing maturity – no less hunger for the killer win, but a more measured and considered approach. And the pundits
agree that this is the last element in a complete repository of skills that will see the last season’s “almost man” step up to the champion’s pantheon.
As Montoya distils his craft, he has been sure not to lose the elemental
quality that makes him such a compelling driver to watch – his fiery passion.
His Latin origins are the source of a smouldering fire in his make up that occasionally eludes restraint and ruptures to the surface. This virtue – so starkly different to the calmness that is Michael Schumacher’s hallmark –
is the appeal for a legion of fans that invest in a character who so abundantly lives, breathes, fights, loves, laughs, shouts and weeps both on the track and off it.
This explicit humanity, the antithesis of the over-honed, professional and corporatised athlete, brings with it a crackle of expectation in every encounter, and has made the man the most discussed racing driver of the recent era.
Montoya’s zenith in 2003, after a difficult start to the year, was his superlative Monaco win. The blue ribbon victory was something that had eluded the might of WilliamsF1 for two decades, and it required the might and self-belief that Montoya mustered to make it happen. It will remain one of the team’s most memorable victories for seasoned campaigners such as Patrick Head, as well as more recent team members such as Chief Designer, Gavin Fisher. “Monaco was the most satisfying result in my professional career, more so on account of the absence of success there for such a long time”, he reflected.
Despite discussions of rifts and splits and antagonism during the season,
the reality is that Montoya’s racing career has been intimately and profitably intertwined with WilliamsF1 and, in particular, Team Principal, Frank Williams since 1997.
Born on the 20th of September 1975 in Bogota, a young Juan Pablo had collected numerous kartingwins and titles by 1992. His karting apprenticeship, commenced at the tender age of five, had been served under the instruction of his attentive father, and Uncle Diego, himself a gentleman racer of no mean ability who, in his time, recorded a top ten finish at Le Mans.
With the indications of potential, and a lust for, matched by an ability to tame, speed, it was natural that the young Montoya would have to step beyond his national frontiers to progress his career.
The Colombian followed in the footsteps of both heroes and hopefuls from the Americas as he raced in various Formula and Touring Car classes in
South America before shifting his focus to a career in Europe. In 1995, he entered his first Formula race in Europe and finished the season in third
place in the British Formula Vauxhall Championship. In 1996, he stepped up a level and drew attention to himself by claiming two wins in British Formula 3, as well as claiming fourth place in the unofficial Formula 3 European Championship in Zandvoort (NLD). This was to be his calling card for International Formula 3000.
When he shot straight into the runner’s up position in the 1997 Formula 3000 Championship, Frank Williams invited him, along with three other drivers, for a Formula One evaluation. Montoya left the team in no doubt about his ability. WilliamsF1, in collaboration with Super Nova Racing, ensured that he had an entry in the 1998 Formula 3000 Championship. By the end of 1998 he
had pocketed the F3000 title along with a record number of race wins and points recorded in a season. WilliamsF1 lost no time in strapping him into
a Formula One cockpit, initially as a test driver.
In 1999, it was conceivable that Montoya’s Formula One debut was imminent, but in a shrewd move that has underpinned his career ever since, the Colombian joined the Target Chip Ganassi Team to contest the CART Championship. And, as they say, the rest is history. The rookie took the series by storm, claiming the title, and seven wins and seven poles to boot.
In his charge as the youngest man to claim the title, Montoya brushed aside the collective efforts of Paul Tracy, Dario Franchitti, Jimmy Vasser,
Michael Andretti & Al Unser Jr, setting a rookie record 954 leading laps over the course 20 races.
Although 2000 was not to be so prolific, Montoya entered and won the Indy 500 at his first attempt. In two years, he had captured the crown jewels of US motor racing, the 1999 CART title and the 2000 Indy 500 win.
After two seasons State-side, Frank Williams resolved the dilemma of his 2000 season Formula One line up by replacing Jenson Button with Montoya in the BMW WilliamsF1 Team.
Naturally, with a mixed history of CART pilot conversion to the different demands of Formula One, encompassing the experiences of Michael Andretti, Jacques Villeneuve and Alex Zanardi, there was bated breath as Montoya
took up the reigns of the FW23. But the BMW WilliamsF1 Team didn’t have to wait too long, and in the third race of his debut season in Interlagos,
Montoya put a sensational and provocative move on Michael Schumacher. Following podiums in Barcelona and at the Nürburgring, he was en route
to victory in Hockenheim, but ultimately had to bide his time until Monza later in the season to claim his first F1 victory.
In 2002, Montoya made the front row of the grid his as he claimed seven poles, five of them consecutively, and although arch-rival Michael Schumacher matched Montoya on visits to the front row, the sense was clearly that Montoya was the dominant force in qualifying. At Monza, he took on the record books, and smashed a 17 year old legacy of Keke Rosberg and the Williams FW10, when the Finn lapped Silverstone at an average speed in excess of 160mph.
On the high-speed Italian track, Montoya bettered the fastest Formula One lap in history by recording an average speed of 161.484 mph.
By 2003, the Colombian was widely expected to take his fight to the very front of the grid. And so it proved. Although the season started slowly for the
BMW WilliamsF1 Team, Montoya kick-started a mid-season rejuvenation with his win in the Monaco Principality. He assisted the team in both of its one-two results at the Nurburgring and Magny-Cours, was dominant in Hockenheim, and well set for the showdown as the season neared its conclusion.
Although fortune ultimately favoured Michael in 2003, there is little
doubt that Montoya represents a new guard in the sport. How this plays out will prove fascinating, as the Colombian heads a number of rising stars
that include Kimi Räikkonen and Fernando Alonso among others, and their respective engagement on the track in 2004 and beyond will shape the
future direction of Formula One.
Juan carefully chooses the people that get close to him. This approach may come across as being somewhat withdrawn in a peaceful drivers’ paddock such as Magny-Cours, in France. Bogotá, on the other hand, reveals a level of popularity with which few other sportsmen have to contend. Thousands
line the streets when he is expected to appear. Of 40 million Columbians, it is estimated that 27 million watched him win the German Grand Prix on television. It’s the driver they are interested in, not Formula One itself. If he had retired, the same number of viewers would have switched off. His compatriots idolise him. He knows that “When I drive, everything at home comes to a standstill. It’s as though the country is paralysed”. And they party in the streets when their hero wins. Visiting Colombia, the image of their national hero
is practically everywhere. He’s the most coveted advertising medium of all, whether advertising soft drinks, computers or engine oil.
Despite his love for his native county, he can’t live in the beautiful corner
of South America. On the rare occasions he visits, bodyguards surround him. The risk of kidnap by guerrillas is too great. He moved his family out of the country for the same reason.
The family now all live in Miami, His father, Pablo, accompanies him to most
of the Grand Prix, as does his beautiful wife, Connie, whom he married in
late October 2002 in a church ceremony in Cartagena, Columbia. His mother, Libia, who doesn’t speak any English and is not exactly what you’d call a classic motor racing fan, is also familiar. His siblings, too – a brother and
two sisters – feel at home in the drivers’ paddock. Most of them usually bring friends with them. In short, the Columbian rarely goes anywhere unaccompanied. Juan Pablo doesn’t in any way consider this an additional burden during a hectic weekend, instead, having his family around him gives him security and makes him feel at home.
Connie and Juan are happy in Miami; they like the pulsing Latino life of the
city by the ocean. Apart from a dream apartment with views of SouthBeach,
they also occupy a hangar-sized garage there. It’s toy heaven. It contains everything you need for leisure-time fun in Miami, whether model air-planes, jet skis, a motor boat, boards for sand- or windsurfing, bicycles, or go-karts. And, of course, a huge fleet of cars. There’s a total of 27 cars and motorbikes, with Connie’s favourite being the BMW X5.
Meantime, whether sliding into an armchair opposite David Letterman in
his role as most favoured returning guest, carrying out humanitarian work under the blue beret of the UN, supporting the charity established
by his wife, the Formula Smiles Foundation, or racing with a barely suppressed exuberance, Juan Pablo Montoya will always be a man alive.
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