Tiago Monteiro: A day in the Sun

Had his F1 career not happened to coincide with one of the most freakish - in all senses of the word - Grands Prix ever held, Tiago Monteiro's place in F1 history could have been very different.

There had been occasions in the past when a Jordan was a car that a young driver could use to make an impression, as Michael Schumacher demonstrated. But 2005 - the team's final year in the sport - was not one of them.

Jordan was not the only team with its back to the wall at the time, and the first part of the season had passed with Eddie Jordan's squad and Minardi tottering around at the back, largely unnoticed by another other than friends and family.

Then, the championship arrived at Indianapolis for the US Grand Prix, and tyres began exploding. It quickly became apparent that the heavy loads induced by the circuit had revealed a flaw in the Michelins, to the point where the track was too dangerous for teams using the French company's products to race on. In other words, most of the field.

Efforts to find a compromise that could at least give the American fans some semblance of a spectacle, even if it meant not awarding points, were vetoed by the FIA, and the end result was a sorry procession of exactly six cars driving around - the Ferraris, Jordans and Minardis.

Ferrari was in a different galaxy to Jordan and Minardi in terms of pace and predictably vanished into the distance, leaving the minnows locked in the unlikeliest of fights for the final podium spot.

Monteiro shot away early, and ended the day with Jordan's last-ever podium finish. And with Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello having opted out of the full podium celebration, the Portuguese driver was left to spray the champagne alone.

"Basically, the clerk of the racecourse, or the guy who was bringing the trophies behind the scenes, told us not to celebrate too much," he remembers.

"But behind the scenes, Schumacher hugged me! He was very happy for me ... everybody was happy. But then when the guy started to say, 'oh, keep it cool', Barrichello and Schumacher calmed it down a lot, but just five minutes beforehand they were all excited.

"I didn't give a shit. I mean, it was my opportunity. I didn't steal anything. We were there to race, and we raced. I could have finished sixth but I finished third, and I had to fight for that.

Tiago Monteiro celebrates in parc ferme with his mechanics © LAT

"And I wanted to enjoy the podium also for the team and the mechanics. Everyone was so excited, and I couldn't just stand there and do a long face."

Indeed, while there may not have been anyone for Ferrari to race against, Monteiro still faced his regular competition, and this time with far more at stake. Looking back now, he regards it as his hardest-ever race, which might seem surprising given that he spent most of it on his own. But that, he says, was the problem.

"Those guys were always my direct opponents; my teammate (Narain Karthikeyan) and the Minardis. We were not fighting against the others anyway. I mean, we were always at at the back. So, my real, direct competitors were there, and I needed to beat them that weekend.

"It was probably the hardest race I have ever done. To be honest, initially, we didn't know how many cars were going to stop. Just before the start, we didn't know that they were all going to stop.

"What we thought was going to happen was, some of them were going to come into the pits, and maybe go and do a few laps. But we never imagined that they would all stop.

"Then, once that happened, I needed to get away from my competitors. I knew I wouldn't be able to follow the Ferraris, but I had to get away from the others. So the first 20 laps were just qualifying laps, just ... pushing, pushing, pushing, trying not to be in a position where I could be under pressure if something went wrong on the car, or if I made a mistake. I wanted to get away. So I didn't look in my mirrors for 20 or more laps.

"I got a big gap, and after that I needed to maintain a rhythm but the team was telling me, 'you are 20 seconds ahead, you are doing good, keep it cool'. But I didn't want to slow down, I didn't want to lose focus. So I kept pushing up until the last 10 laps. There was 60 laps of just pushing hard, because I didn't want to have to think about it, I wanted to focus on what I was doing and not even think that I could be on the podium.

"So in the last 10 laps the team said, 'OK, you have 30 seconds, you need to slow down because you have a high temperature in the gearbox'. I couldn't believe it. And after that, the last 10 laps were a nightmare! You hear all these little noises in the car ... it was tough. But when I finished, it was a big relief."

The result was an unexpected farewell gift for a team grinding its way towards extinction, although it did expose a rare lapse on the part of Eddie Jordan during pre-season contract negotiations.

"I kept the trophy," Monteiro grins. "The team wasn't very happy, but it wasn't in my contract - nothing in my contract said that I had to give the trophy to the team. At the end of the day it's a driver's trophy, so I kept it. I still have it at home."

Monteiro remained with the team when it was transformed into Midland F1, and again when Spyker bought the team during the season. But by the end of 2006, the novelty of running around at the back had worn off.

Tiago Monteiro racing for SEAT in the World Touring Car Championship in Macau © LAT

"At the end of that year, there were a lot of promises about the future," he explains. "And to be honest, I demanded a lot of guarantees in terms of evolution and stepping up, which they couldn't give me.

"I always told myself, I'm not going to do another year struggling at the back. It's bad for me, it's bad for my image, it's bad in my head ... and I just wasn't as motivated as I had been before.

"When I started out, I would have started anywhere - even at the back, because of course you have to start somewhere. But I am not going to be in F1 just to be in F1, and be at the back. What drivers like [Giancarlo] Fisichella are doing just to stay in F1 ... I just can't personally do it. So I tried to go elsewhere, of course, and there was some contact but ... no room."

That 'somewhere' was Toro Rosso.

"It was very close," he insists. "At other places there was contact but no room, but at Toro Rosso there was actually a contract on the table. And the discussions lasted a long time; they lasted until February.

"It was really close, but there were political issues where Red Bull wanted something and [Gerhard] Berger wanted another thing, and I was there in the middle, basically. But it got very, very close, we had a contract on the table a few times. But it didn't happen. I don't regret it. I tried."

He eventually found a new home in touring cars as a member of SEAT's factory WTCC team, for which he is about to embark upon his second season. The move paid dividends, with a string of solid results despite his lack of tin-top experience.

"It was a great first year," he says. "I got pole position, three podiums ... but especially, I never thought that I would enjoy it so much.

"And then I realised that I wasn't that happy at all in F1. That's when I realised that I want to be able to fight for wins. That's what I always did. Even if it's F1, if I was not capable of fighting, I wasn't happy. Last year I realised how happy I was to be back fighting in front. I am really enjoying the move."