Juan Pablo Montoya interview

By Susie P Sheridan (2001-03-02)

Having chased Juan Pablo Montoya and his entourage around the NEC building, at this year's Autosport Show, I finally persuaded his manager to give me a couple of minutes of Montoya's time. With his manager urging me to round up the interview after only three questions, I tried ignoring him and threw whatever questions I could, in the hope that Montoya would be responsive. I was warned, that Montoya would only speak to me in English if he felt like doing so. It was my lucky day!

SPS: "As the new boy at Williams, how are you settling in at BMW Williams?"

JPM: "Really good actually, I think they're great people in the team, and it's a great experience. I think everybody is looking forward to start running again and I think in a couple of years the car will be a top running car, so it's looking really good. I've been in the factory for a couple of day's and we have actually done a lot of development in the car."

SPS: "So, have you used traction control yet?"

JPM: "We've tried it sometimes to see how the cars gonna react, but you know still we have to wait till Barcelona to see how it's really gonna work."

JPM: "No, I wouldn't go against it, really, because at the same time, at the end of the day, when you use traction control you got the development in a way, that's no better than anyone else's, so you still gotta work."

SPS: "You're practice times have equalled, if not bettered Ralf's times. Are you going to show him how to drive the F1 car?"

JPM: "I don't think anyone has to show Ralf how to drive, I think he's a really good driver, from my perspective I just need to work, to improve myself everyday."

SPS: "Your friend Alex Zanardi, has been giving you a little bit of advice on how to survive in formula one. What advice were you given?"

JPM: "Not much really, I haven't talked to him for a long time, since the last race. Mainly he just wished me good luck, because he was in a little bit of a struggle when he came."

The understatement of the year!

SPS: "So which track are you looking forward to race at, the most?"

JPM: "I think Silverstone is a lot of fun, I really like the Silverstone. I seemed to go well around here and Spa, at the big circuits."

SPS: "Good luck for this year and thank you very much for your time Juan Pablo."

JPM: "Thank You."