Montoya - back to his roots

Penske drivers don't wear jeans. That seeming triviality actually tells you something about the differences between Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske in IndyCar. Analyse the operational divergences and structural differences all you like, but in the paddock it's the sartorial gulf that is one of the more obvious clues as to how two of the series' powerhouse teams approach things.

When Ganassi-run 2013 champion Scott Dixon is called upon to make an appearance, he does so in either his racesuit or a neat pair of jeans and a team polo. If you're with Penske, it's black slacks all the way. How much all this translates into lap time is a moot point: at Penske, it projects an image of professionalism and discipline.

For anyone in the Formula 1 paddock whose perception of Juan Pablo Montoya hasn't changed since he walked away in 2006, that could set off the alarm bells.

During the early-2000s, Montoya was F1's poster boy for the anti-establishment. His move from Williams to McLaren was precipitated by a spectacular tirade over the radio against his team at the French Grand Prix in 2003, while the first that Ron Dennis learned of Montoya's NASCAR plans was when he caught wind of the news that his driver was on his way to Chicago to announce his new deal with Chip Ganassi - this, with half of the 2006 F1 season still to run.

A year or so earlier, when Montoya first arrived at McLaren, Dennis suggested that his experience of working with Ayrton Senna meant he'd be better able to deal with hot-headed Latins than Williams had been. Speaking with AUTOSPORT at the time, Montoya himself was sceptical. "Nah," he said. "I'm a bit more extreme than that."

Montoya left F1 after the 2006 US GP © LAT

Within a few months, Dennis probably agreed. History shows that Montoya's NASCAR flirtation meant his split with McLaren - and F1 - midway through the season, setting up a stock car career that would run until the end of last year.

And now IndyCar beckons again, with the 38-year-old Colombian preparing to drive a third Penske entry alongside Will Power and Helio Castroneves.

But the 2014-spec Montoya is a very different animal to the one who terrorised CART in 1999, or who won the 2000 Indianapolis 500, or who has seven grand prix victories to his name.

"I think he's continued to evolve as a person," says Team Penske president Tim Cindric. "When he came across [to the US] in 1999, he didn't really care too much about what anybody thought of him. At least, that was my perception of it. He went on to the Formula 1 world, and that was a different experience for him, and obviously the NASCAR world is another different environment from what he had been accustomed to.

"But during that time period he has grown through different experiences. He's pretty well-rounded, because he's learned when you have to compromise. I don't think there is much compromise on the racetrack, but off the racetrack he's learned.

"Have we got him at the best time? Out of the car, absolutely. In the car, we hope we still have him at his best! I think he hopes the same thing."

WHAT IS THERE TO PROVE?

When contemplating Montoya's return to IndyCar, an obvious question is: why bother? He has already achieved more than most other drivers of his generation and, at risk of sounding crass, he doesn't need the money. Yet if Montoya has built a career out of not doing anything that he doesn't want to, then his mere presence in the paddock should answer any questions over whether he is still motivated.

"The way I looked at it was, it's now or never," he says. "I have two, three, four years [of driving] left. Three years from now, I wouldn't have had this opportunity. So I think the timing's perfect."

Pressed about what could have driven Montoya back to IndyCar, Cindric guessed that it might have involved wanting to win in front of his two children, who have largely grown up watching their father getting beaten in NASCAR. Montoya himself says that the real reason is far simpler.

Montoya quit NASCAR without an oval win © LAT

"I had kids when I was in Formula 1 and I was still winning races, so I don't think that changes anything," he says. "The motivation now is even more than it was before. Before, I was always winning, and it was easy.

"Now I feel like everyone thinks I'm going to come in and just be fast because I've done it all. But personally I feel like I've got a lot of work to do, so we'll see. I'm sure there are going to be weeks where things are going to be great, and there are going to be weeks where we're going to struggle."

The one thing everyone agrees on is that Montoya is unlikely to dominate first time out in St Petersburg, and not just because he hasn't raced on a street circuit since 2006. The adaptation curve is too steep. Montoya suggests that when he started testing with Penske late last year, the basics of throwing a single-seater around the track came back to him relatively quickly, but nailing the details is going to take more work.

"To be honest with you, adapting to the car hasn't been as bad as I thought it was going to be," he says. "I thought that after being out of the car for so many years it was going to be very difficult. The basic driving... I was comfortable with that from day one.

"But after the way I've been working with the NASCAR for so many years, you can't change everything overnight and just hope that it's going to start clicking by itself. Getting used to new tyres; they take a few laps to come in, and it's been hard to find out how far you can go with them, and how hard you can really push them. It's just a process of learning again.

"There's going to be a transition period. The first race is going to be, 'All right, let's figure out how qualifying works.' One of the big disadvantages here is that you never get those red qualifying tyres until the race weekend. Right now, on used tyres, I'm as quick as Helio and Will, no problem. On the new tyres, I struggle - they seem to find 0.5s, 0.6s that I don't. So we're trying to understand why that is.

"And it's also things like we've got a front wing now. I haven't used a front wing in seven years. So you can actually put more front grip in instead of taking rear grip out to get it to work the way you want it. I think that's what we're chasing."

MATURITY MEANS COOPERATION

The Colombian is aware that he needs time © LAT

Cindric says Penske is prepared to play the long game when it comes to getting its new charge up to speed. "I think it's going to take track time," he says.

"To be fast in a modern-day IndyCar is in the details. With Will and Helio, it's the details that make them different. I think Juan has to get a good foundation first, and then he has to work on the details. I think it would be a lot to expect him to be successful in the first few races. He has to learn to drive the car, but then he has to learn to race the car. And it's different to what he's done before."

The other phase of adaptation could potentially be even more delicate. Montoya has walked into a Penske team already populated by two guys who are very fast drivers, very strong personalities, and who have spent several seasons learning how to work together.

A good team dynamic is not something to be messed with lightly, given the potentially disastrous ramifications of disruption. But so far, Cindric says he's pleased with how his incumbent drivers have handled Montoya's arrival.

"They've embraced him," he says. "I didn't really know what their response would be when we told them that Juan was joining the team, and they were very positive. [Trying to manage all three] is probably a good challenge to have. Juan brings an enthusiasm and a personality that is different from the ones we have, but it might be different in a good way."

For Montoya, the ease of his working relationship during these early stages is a sign of maturity across Penske's line-up. He's the first to admit that the same combination might not have blended so seamlessly earlier in his career.

"If we were all 23 and we were all trying to look for a job, we'd all be trying to kill each other," he says. "It wouldn't work. But the reason that it works with the three of us is that we are all very mature. Today I was doing some filming with Will and we were having a great time, laughing about everything, really enjoying ourselves.

"And it's the same with Helio - every time I'm with Helio we seem to click really well; we have a really good relationship. Years ago, it was the other way - I've known Helio since the 1990s, and back then he was one of the guys I had to beat.

"You mature over the years, and I think we're above that BS and controversy. For us right now, the priority is working together to make the car as strong as we can. From that point of view we're in a really good place right now."

Montoya says he clicks with his new team-mates

If there's an elephant in the room, it looks a bit like a NASCAR. Compared with his single-seater achievements, Montoya's NASCAR strike rate of two wins from 253 starts doesn't look like the sort of thing that keeps Jimmie Johnson awake at night.

On the flipside, you could argue that he was more successful in stock cars than most open-wheel stars who attempt the transition, Tony Stewart notwithstanding. Montoya himself has mixed feelings about that phase of his career.

"I won races," he says. "I made the Chase. We went through a situation at Ganassi where we changed personnel so many times. There were so many changes that it was really hard to build on anything. That was one of the hardest things.

"Did I want better things? Of course I wanted more wins. But when the car was good I was competitive. I felt like I was one of 'the guys' there, I wasn't the open-wheel guy coming from the outside. I was competitive from the beginning. Most of the guys who tried to do it never, never, never clicked. It's just hard because the cars move so much more. They're really unpredictable, so the margin of error is pretty big."

Tempting as it is to frame the upcoming season as Montoya's chance to beat the team whose flag he carried for so many years (Ganassi), he insists otherwise. ("I never think about that.")

Besides, he has enough to deal with just making sure he's competitive. When he talks about the 2014 championship, he tends to do so in terms of how he can support Power and Castroneves rather than how they can support him, which is a further hint that he expects to lose a little ground over the first few races while he works the car out. But he's still set some ambitious goals.

"I'd be happy if I win the [Indy] 500," he says. "I want to win races. I want to run up front and just have a good year. It's going to be an uphill battle to get to where we need to be, but I think I'm in the right place to do it."

This feature originally appeared in the February 13 issue of AUTOSPORT magazine

MONTOYA MAGIC: GLOBAL SINGLE-SEATER MAESTRO

1998 Pau F3000

Driving for the Super Nova team, he was already on his way to the F3000 crown when the field arrived at the challenging street circuit of Pau, where the Colombian had impressively won as a rookie in 1997. This time he took pole, fastest lap, and won by a whole lap...

2000 Indy 500

The CART teams had largely stayed away from the 500 since their split with the Indy Racing League, but in 2000 the Ganassi team fielded Montoya and he became the first rookie to win since Graham Hill in 1966. It was a convincing run too, Montoya leading more than three quarters of the race.

2000 Michigan

Montoya's IndyCar crown might have come in 1999, but his unsuccessful title defence was in many ways no less impressive. Pipping Michael Andretti by 0.04s after a classic slipstreaming battle and a near-miss with a backmarker on the final lap was a highlight.

2001 Brazilian GP

Some predicted fireworks when Montoya's switch to F1 was confirmed. It didn't take long: an aggressive pass of Michael Schumacher at Interlagos was followed by a dramatic retirement as Montoya's Williams was rear-ended by the lapped Jos Verstappen.

2005 Brazilian GP

Montoya's McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen generally had the edge during 2005, but there were still some fine Montoya moments. At Interlagos, he outqualified Raikkonen and then overtook polesitter Fernando Alonso after a restart to score his seventh and final F1 victory.