The magic moments of modern racing's foremost all-rounder

Few drivers in the modern era can claim to have been successful in as diverse a range of categories as Juan Pablo Montoya.

Seven times a Grand Prix-winner in Formula 1 with Williams and McLaren, the Colombian has twice drunk the milk in victory lane at the Indianapolis 500 and collected three Rolexes at the Daytona 24 Hours.

A champion in US open wheel and sportscars for Ganassi and Penske, he also took on the gold ol' boys of NASCAR and claimed two Cup Series wins on road courses.

To mark 20 years since his swashbuckling debut season in F1, Montoya sat down with Autosport to reflect on 10 critical moments on his journey.

1998 Pau Grand Prix victory in F3000

Montoya had dominated at Pau in 1997, but did so again in even more remarkable fashion the following year

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At the epic French street track, Super Nova driver Montoya took advantage of an early accident behind him that blocked the track to lap the entire field. It was his most convincing victory on his way to the 1998 title, beating Nick Heidfeld after a season-long struggle.

“I beat everybody by a lot there! In 1997, it was a great year because I was on pole by four tenths and won it by almost 40 seconds. In 1998, the cool thing was I was on pole by four tenths, but I still thought they might beat me so towards the end I gave it a proper go, I was another half-second up, and I got to the chicane and destroyed the car. I put a hole in the chassis and everything, and the guys stayed up all night.

“So, to come back and win the race for the guys who didn’t get five minutes of sleep was pretty awesome. And to lap the whole field was pretty cool!

“I think I got a 15 or 20s lead straight away when they all shunted behind me, but I was fast enough to catch everybody. My engineer was really worried, because I was taking a second per lap from the guys fighting over second. So when I saw them on the straight ahead of me, I got even more excited and started going even quicker! My engineer was on the radio: ‘Hey, hey, hey, there’s no need to lap them, don’t throw this away!’ So I backed off, but I still caught and passed them.”

First Williams F1 seat fit

Montoya, together with Wilson (pictured in car) formed the Williams testing lineup for 1998

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After his rookie year in F3000 in 1997 with RSM Marko, the Colombian's strong performance in an evaluation test at the Circuit de Catalunya led to his being signed as Williams F1 tester for 1998 - but a race seat wasn't available until 2001.

“This was really special. This was my first F1 seat fitting, and what was crazy is that I have really big thighs and [engineer] James Robinson was there and I got in the car, so he asked, ‘How do you fit?’ and my legs were like tight as hell.

“I asked, ‘There’s no way to get some more room here?’ and he replied, ‘No way, or you can’t drive’, so then I’m like, ‘Ooooh, it’s fine!’ The car was as small as possible, and my legs are the opposite to Jacques’s [Villeneuve]!

“It was a shootout, so I was up against Nicolas Minassian, Soheil Ayari and Max Wilson. They gave us 20 laps each day and it was really cool. What they also did was a written exam, and I flunked that terribly, because being F1 I didn’t want to ask anything. They asked, ‘What tyre pressures are we running?’ and I’m like, ‘I dunno!’ – so that was terrible.

“But the last task was new tyres, low fuel. And I went really, really quick. That solved any issues [he chuckles] and I got the job as test driver.

“I was genuinely disappointed by the horsepower, I was like, ‘Is that it?’ – it was fast, don’t get me wrong, but I thought it was gonna rip my head off. But when I got on the brakes and turned, yeah, it ripped my head off.

“On the lap on new tyres, it was the proper Barcelona then, with the two fast right-handers at the end, and into the final turn I pointed the car flat-out, and my head totally rolled away from where I was going. So I kept steering, with my head pushed to the left, until I could see the kerb, then I went straight and finished the lap. I was fully committed but it was so, so funny.”

1999 CART Series champion

Up against Franchitti in his rookie year, Montoya showed searing pace but also a propensity for incident which kept his Scottish rival in the hunt

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With no room at Williams, Montoya headed Stateside for 1999 to replace F1-bound Alex Zanardi at Chip Ganassi's title-winning squad. He made an instant impression and won the title on countback of wins after tying on points with Dario Franchitti.

“Coming to Indycar… well, with Williams I felt like I’d done everything that needed to be done to get the F1 drive – I’d won the F3000 title, I was as quick as the race drivers in testing. And Frank told me, ‘Sorry, we’re going with somebody else.’ Then he added, ‘It’s Alex Zanardi. He’s coming to test, we want you to help him.’ I was like, ‘Screw you – you picked him over me, he knows what he’s doing, I don’t wanna go.’ Oooh, Frank was pissed. So they made me go to the test. But it’s hard to be an ass to Zanardi because he’s such a nice guy.

“Chip Ganassi and [engineer] Morris Nunn came to the test to see Alex. At the end of the first day of testing, Chip wants to take me to dinner. I met him at seven, and he had a contract right there. ‘Do you wanna come and race CART for me?’ – so I’m thinking, ‘F1 is out and I can drive a title-winning Indycar’ – and he’s saying, ‘This is the deal, this is what I’ll pay you’ and I said ‘OK!’ I didn’t wanna stay being a test driver, I needed to race.

“I moved to America and I made my career. There were two guys I just had to beat. With Dario, when I came to Europe with Paul Stewart Racing, Graham Taylor, who was team manager of the Formula Vauxhall team, he saw Dario like God. And then, when I replaced Jan Magnussen in DTM after he broke his leg, Dario was the quickest guy at Mercedes. I remember the race at Silverstone, he came out of the first corner and banged into me. And then we spent Becketts and all that just banging on each other. Carbon pieces were flying everywhere! I had a blast. It was friendly, but it was always Dario!

“And then there was Helio [Castroneves], who was in F3 with PSR when I was in Vauxhall. He saw himself as a professional and me as just an amateur. So when I got to Indycar I really wanted to show them and beat them so bad! They gave me the ammunition and I had the bigger gun.

“I won seven races, and we threw a few away. I made a lot of mistakes but ended up winning the championship, tied with Dario but with more wins. It was cool, it was a fun year. In my mind, I was done with F1.”

Indianapolis 500 winner in 2000

Montoya led 167 of 200 laps to win at the iconic Brickyard by over seven seconds

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At the height of the Split between CART and the IRL, Ganassi was the first team to break ranks and race the IRL-sanctioned Indy 500. On his first time at the Brickyard, Montoya utterly dominated to become the first rookie victor since Graham Hill in 1966.

“In CART we went from Reynard and Honda in 1999 to win the championship, to Lola and a Toyota. I led more races in 2000 than 1999 but only won three of them! So when they said we’re going to run the [IRL-sanctioned] 500 as well, I said, ‘I don’t wanna do it – it’s a distraction from the championship.’

“We went straight from Japan to Indy, but by lap four I was flat and I was so fast they said I didn’t need to do the rookie test! I never did it [chuckles]! It was a big ego thing with both series, but at the time I never understood how big it was, and I just wanted to kick everyone in IRL’s ass.

“I was really pissed we missed the pole, I had understeer and was screaming ‘wave it off!’ but Chip didn’t, he wanted us to focus on the race. Greg Ray did three runs and finally beat us.

“At the start, everyone thought I was going to go around the outside at Turn 1, but I backed off – and he went right up to the wall! Like, he was ready to finish it right there! I made one stupid mistake, as I was racing him in traffic and went three-wide and had to get on the brakes inside somebody. I could have thrown the race away there.

“Everybody thought I don’t respect the place, some still do, but… everyone told me the track would feel narrower with all the fans, which is why I backed out at Turn 1. But when I got there – guess what? – it was the same frickin’ track. I just went there, drove the frickin’ car – it worked out OK.”

Formula 1 debut season with Williams in 2001

In just his third Grand Prix, Montoya took Michael Schumacher by surprise and seized the lead with an aggressive restart in Brazil

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A eagerly-anticipated F1 debut finally came in 2001, replacing Jenson Button at Williams. Montoya starred in Brazil as he made a forceful pass for the lead on Michael Schumacher and looked set for victory until being clattered by backmarker Jos Verstappen. 

“It was really weird. It was the summer after I won at Indy, I was doing a sponsor thing in Colombia, shooting a commercial. The phone goes: ‘Hello Juan, it’s Frank. Do you want to race F1 for me?’ I said, ‘I have a three-year deal here, so I can’t.’ He says, ‘But do you want to?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to’ and he says, ‘OK, I’ll take care of it.’ That was it, that simple; one phone call.

“This was race three in Brazil – I was running behind Michael, and we got a safety car. I’d been passing people at restarts for the past two years and I thought, ‘I’ve got a pretty good shot here.’ When we started accelerating, I heard a bunch of noise from his car – and his powerband was incredible, and I’m spinning the tyres! They probably had something we didn’t, you know F1 loopholes, so I was really pissed.

“I drafted him and said to myself, ‘Please brake early, please brake early’ and I think because the gap was big enough he thought he could brake early. And I just went for it, like full send.

“The thing that shocked me was when I went over the crest, the car got really loose. I’m like, ‘OK, I’m taking him out and I’m going with him into the grass!’ But I managed to stop the car without making the grass… It was really cool!

“I wasn’t going to give him an inch. People respected Michael so much, but nobody would race him. When he was behind, people would jump out of the way to let him past. That drove me insane.

“So every shot I got, I went for it. I was OK crashing! But that’s why it worked. He understood that I’d take it that far – I think he was OK too, so if we were talking about it today, he wouldn’t laugh about it, but there was no ill intention of being nasty or evil.”

2003 Monaco Grand Prix winner

Montoya drove an inch-perfect defensive race to repel the challenges of Kimi Raikkonen and Schumacher behind

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Winless in 2002, Montoya was a title challenger in 2003, but it wasn't until round seven at Monaco where he got his season up and running with a well-judged victory, made more stressful by a BMW engine that was fast running out of oil.

“This was a good race. People underrated how good Ralf [Schumacher, his Williams team-mate] was. I think I got under his skin, mentally I destroyed him, but his speed was incredible. I think I did a better job of getting the car to what I needed than he did, and that was the difference.

“He was on pole and led from the start, so I pushed, and he went quicker, and I pushed… It got to a point where I was on his gearbox and Kimi [Raikkonen] was right with us. So they thought, ‘If Kimi pits first, he’s going to beat both of us’, so they gambled on Ralf pitting and left me out to open a gap. I managed to do that and came out ahead of both of them.

“It was fine, until 20 laps to go, when they told me, ‘You’re out of oil’ so I had to turn it down. Back then we were shifting at 18,500 or 19,000rpm and they said, ‘You’re going to have to shift at 16,000’ – it was like… no power!

“So I’ve been stuck behind a Minardi around here before, I wasn’t able to pass it, so that was my mentality. Stay cool. And it got to a point where Kimi got really close and I asked, ‘Can you give me a little more?’ and they did.

“But it was really tough. Out of the chicane, towards Tabac, the McLaren had great traction and he probably could’ve stuck the nose in a few times, but he didn’t. Honestly, when I spoke to the BMW guys afterwards they were surprised we made it until the end.

“I was a huge Senna fan. So, with what he did in Monaco, winning all those races, it meant winning there was like my ultimate goal. My life was all about winning Monaco, and the Williams cars at that time were the best I’ve ever driven.”

Shock switch to NASCAR in mid-2006

Montoya parted company with McLaren in 2006 and never looked back, heading to NASCAR for a seven-year stint. Here, he makes his Cup debut at Homestead

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Montoya switched to McLaren for 2005, but it wasn't a happy alliance. After a first corner clash with team-mate Raikkonen at the 2006 US GP, Montoya jumped ship to NASCAR to link up once again with Ganassi. He regularly reached the end-of-year playoffs and finished eighth in the 2009 Cup Series.

“Chip used to call me once a year to say hi. And it was around Indy in F1, and he said to me, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ I said ‘I’m looking for a drive.’ He says, ‘Oh, well I’m looking for a driver.’ Where? ‘NASCAR. You interested?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I can look at it’ and hung up.

“He phoned me the next day and he said, ‘Will you really consider it?’ And I did, because I didn’t want to run mid-pack in F1. I didn’t want to stay at McLaren at that time, and Williams wasn’t in a good place – there were no other options.

“Here, Chip was offering me a five-year deal, which turned into seven. I could live in Miami, I could extend my racing career, we’re good! The car itself is horrendous to start with, but when you understand it, it’s actually not too bad. You understand the mentality of what a Cup car is meant to feel like.

“But the racing was incredible. Going to an oval, people think they’re easy, but in a good Cup car – when you can run the bottom, middle or top – y’know, right against the fence, and you get the hang of it… it’s so cool!

“Around 2008, 2009 and 2010, when we had a good car, I loved it! We led a lot, won on the road courses, and I should have won on an oval – at Indy I came very close.”

Second Indianapolis 500 win in 2015

Montoya took damage early at Indianapolis, but fought back to pass Power and hold on to win again, 15 years after his first

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After winning once on his open-wheel return with Team Penske in 2014, Montoya was a force in 2015 and only lost the title on countback to Scott Dixon thanks to the unpopular decision to award the Sonoma finale double points. His year was capped by a second Indy 500 win, passing team-mate Will Power late on.

“It meant a lot, because I’d been away in F1 and everything, and Roger Penske hadn’t won Indy since 2009. Honestly, when I got there, the oval side of things weren’t great. I felt like I elevated their programme a lot and I got a lot out of the car. Against the other guys I struggled on road courses, street courses I was better, but on the ovals I always felt I had the upper hand.

“It was a really good race, which didn’t start so great because at a restart we all went, then checked up and Simona [de Silvestro] never braked and hit me. I thought we were out of the race! When I stopped, the only damage was on the tail. We were lucky that she hit me hard enough that pieces of my car were all over the track, which lengthened the caution!

“We restarted from the back and came through little by little. It’s a long race, you’ve just got to keep putting yourself in good positions. I remember getting up to Helio in seventh and thinking, ‘This is going to get harder to pass people now’, but I kept being patient. I only made one mistake, trying to pass [Scott] Dixon I went too low and touched the apron, but I saved it – I dunno how!

“Once I got Dixon and Power I thought, ‘Should I wait or should I go?’ and decided, ‘Just lead’. I’d rather lose the lead on the last lap than wait only for the caution to come out. That was kinda my gamble.”

2019 IMSA title in Penske-run Acura

Wins at Mid-Ohio, Detroit and Laguna Seca gave Cameron and Montoya the 2019 IMSA crown over the Action Express Cadillac team

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After a partial IndyCar programme in 2017, Montoya was switched to Penske's newly-established sportscar arm in IMSA for 2018. He and team-mate Dane Cameron failed to win that year, but three victories in 2019 helped them to beat Cadillac's Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani and secure Montoya's first title since 1999.

“Winning for Roger, again! This time a championship with Acura. In the first year, as a team, we didn’t do a good enough job. The sister car won some races, but we didn’t, and the second year was when it all came together.

“We started the season really badly, we had an engine issue in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and we started on pole at Sebring but we had really wrong tyre pressures for the rain, then the steering wheel failed, and the real-time telemetry failed – so we felt out of it after the first two races.

“Week after week we just worked so hard on the consistency, so even when we were bad we were on the podium. Then we started winning, got a really good run going, so when we got to Petit Le Mans we just had to finish – there was no need to win that race. And the Balance of Performance was way against us there: the Cadillac could run every lap of the race like qualifying!

“We were just happy to be there, we waited for other people to make mistakes, stayed on the lead lap and did what we needed to do to win the title. We were smart.”

Le Mans 24 Hours debut in 2018

Montoya's Ligier wasn't at the standard of the rival ORECA machines, which made for a long 24 hours before the exclusion of two cars promoted him to third

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Chasing the triple crown in the world’s biggest 24-hour race, Montoya signed to headline a second United Autosports Ligier at Le Mans. With young guns Hugo de Sadeleer and Will Owen, he finished third after the TDS Racing cars that finished first and third were disqualified for refuelling irregularities.

“With Zak [Brown], Richard [Dean], United Autosports and the Ligier. Oh my God, I had a blast racing for those guys… but that race was so painful – even though we got a podium out of it!

“If we were in an ORECA like the others, for sure we should have won the race. Easily! It was so frustrating because it’s an amazing operation they have, a great team, but the engineer had worked for Ligier and he defended the car like it was a baby. I was telling them I’ve driven the ORECA, I’d driven it at Petit Le Mans for Penske [in 2017], and it just felt like there was something wrong with this car.

“It was difficult and unpredictable, and the engineer was telling me I’m driving it wrong, and that really, really gets on my nerves. I might not be driving it perfectly, but I’ve got enough experience to know when something is wrong. On the morning of the race, we made some changes. And then we were miles ahead of the sister car.

“A bit like Indy, I never thought that much of Le Mans. For me, it’s not about the triple crown so much, but I’d really like to win Le Mans. And the ORECA I’m racing now, with DragonSpeed, is so much fun to drive, I really enjoy it.”

Since we spoke, Montoya has won the Pro-Am LMP2 class at Le Mans with DragonSpeed. And so the story continues.

Together with DragonSpeed team-mates Ben Hanley and Henrik Hedman, Montoya (right) took a class win at Le Mans this year

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