Juan Pablo Montoya recalls ‘a**hole’ approach to racing as Michael Schumacher treatment

Former Williams and McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya said he adopted an “a**hole” approach to racing of ‘leave me space or crash’, as he did not like seeing rivals putting up such little fight against Michael Schumacher.

Montoya would make his Formula 1 debut with Williams back in 2001 and remained with the team through the height of Schumacher’s dominance at Ferrari, where the German racer made himself a seven-time World Champion with a run of five titles in a row between 2000-04.

Juan Pablo Montoya admits approach to Michael Schumacher ‘p*ssed me off’
Montoya won four races as a Williams driver during that Schumacher era, the Colombian expressing his frustration over how at that time “nobody raced” Schumacher. Instead, he felt they were far too happy to get out of the way.

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The annoying thing with Michael is nobody raced him,” said Montoya when appearing on the Beyond the Grid podcast.

“When Michael was coming from the back, it’s like, ‘Oh, Michael is coming’, everybody would get out of the way from him.

“That pssed me off, because why? It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s Michael, don’t fck with Michael’.”

Asked if the fact that Schumacher was in a mighty Ferrari at that time explained that approach from rivals, Montoya replied: “I know, but everybody had so much respect.”