Actually, toward the end, he was not a 'glad handing' personality. The women would respond if he was even in the building, but at the last CART race in Houston, he was taking care of the business of the team, and I left him to that.... You have a picture with him?
As I recall of JPM in F1: He came into F1 with a big reputation as being a fast driver who would happily go wheel to wheel with anyone, who wasn't going to take any cr:censored: p from anyone, and he was going to show Schumacher how "real" racers do it and put him in his place. The reality was, yes was fast, yes he did go wheel to wheel with just about everyone and yes, he didn't really take any cr:censored: p from anyone (and gave out a bit of attitude at the same time), but....... He also failed to win anything like as many races as he should have, he had far too many races where he seemed to be more obsessed with beating Schumacher every lap than in trying to win the race, and apart from the occasional race, he simply wasn't in Schumacher's class when it came to racing F1 consistently, week in - week out. Having failed to put Schumacher in his place (and completely failing to even challenge for an F1 WDC), he eventually left F1 with his tail between his legs moaning and b:censored:tching about F1 and blaming everyone else for his comparative failure in the series rather than simply accepting that when it came to F1, he wasn't really good enough to be a Champion.
My experience was from 5 years ago he may have changed since then but I found his behavior then to be disappointing. I'd already known him to be a bit of a prima donna from F1, but I was still surprised at some of his antics. Biggest revelation from him was how much he disliked F1, specifically the politics.
yes I heard him say the same. he also said that what he actually loved about nascar the most was the big motorhome and the ability to have his family close by during the events.
That, I believe , was the main reason he left F1 abruptly. I don't remember him having much trouble driving, but the atmosphere didn't suit him. But I was surprised that having left F1, he elected to do NASCAR instead of open-wheel (CART or IRL), where he had done more than OK. NASCAR is an entirely different ballgame . Money, I suppose ...
It's actually a British (or perhaps more correctly, English) term. They have such a great vocabulary, especially the slang and colloquialisms.
He walks right into the camera, blames the poor guy holding it rather than acknowledge a bit of his own clumsiness, then acts like a foul mouthed child. Sounds like a prima donna from here. I heard once that he and Dennis argued over wearing his Rolex in the race car. Engineers spend hours and hours shaving grams from the car and Tubby wants to wear his heavy metal bracelet. Seems a different skill set for F1 and Oval drivers. JPM is better suited to the latter. Congrats on his win for the grey haired set.
I remember when he came into F1 with this attitude like he was going to "show Schumacher what's what" How'd that work out for you, Juan? LOL
Perhaps thinking about Graham Hill, who won the F1 world chanpionship, Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500.
He didn't really have the car to do it now did he? Apparently he and Ferrari had talks about his joining the team at some point but MS killed that. He at the very least respected him. JPM himself said in an interview that MS hated him, lol.
I don't know the guy, so I won't comment. All I know is the dude can flat out drive. Thought people might like to see him back in his Skip Barber days. It's amazing how many champions have come through their program. I can't speak highly enough of their instructors. Image Unavailable, Please Login
What is your source on Montoya talking with Ferrari? I've never heard that. He would not have had a prayer against Michael Schumacher in the same car, but that is obvious. Kimi (a good driver but nowhere near MS level) made him look like a joke and he even lost to Ralf Schumacher one year and barely beat him in the standings 2 years while they were teammates. Then he got fat and buggered off for Nascar.
I find that story hard to believe but people are weird, so who knows. Indycar has more than ovals just for the record. But yah they are tough. That is why Mansell, coming off an f1 championship, almost died on one when he went to CART. Amazing story that he went on to win the championship for Newman/Haas after fracturing his back.
Juan Pablo Montoya says Michael Schumacher kept him from Ferrari F1 ride | Autoweek. He was a headcase but I think he would have given MS a hard time. MS didn't want Kimi as a teammate and he darned sure wouldn't have wanted JPM. He wouldn't have survived at Ferrari. If he hated F1 politics going to Ferrari would have been the worse move he could possibly make.
