Williams BMW driver Juan-Pablo Montoya wants to become only the fifth driver to have won both the US Grand Prix and the Indy 500.
Williams BMW driver Juan-Pablo Montoya wants to become only the fifth driver to have won both the US Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500. If successful, the Colombian will be the first driver to win both events at the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Montoya romped to victory at the 2000 Indianapolis 500 and then moved to F1 in 2001 with BMW Williams. Last year, he had a good shot at winning the US Grand Prix when he snatched the lead from Schumacher on lap 34. But his dream of scoring a pair of consecutive victories at the Brickyard vanished five laps later when his car broke down.
“It would mean a lot to win at Indianapolis again,” Montoya told . “Last year I was very close. I was very competitive.
It’ll be my second time, but it probably won’t be the last time I go there. I think my expectations are higher than normal. I think I have a pretty good chance.”
Only four drivers, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti, have won the Indianapolis 500 and the United States Grand Prix. But none of those drivers won the US Grand Prix at Indy, which made its debut in 2000.
Back in 1999, Montoya was the driver to beat in CART, as he won seven races and had seven pole positions to become the league’s youngest champion, all as a rookie in the series. Now the Columbian is at the other end of stick, chasing Schumacher.
The Colombian has not won a grand prix in 2002. “At the moment, Schumacher has got better equipment. And sometimes it’s Rubens. I do want to beat Michael.”
Montoya thinks a major factor favouring Schumacher and Ferrari this season is tyres. Ferrari uses Bridgestone rubber, while the BMW Williams F1 team uses Michelins.
“I think the performance of the car on old tyres is not good,” he said. “Sometimes we’re not quick enough. It’s frustrating, but I can’t do anything about it.”
After a dismal Italian Grand Prix, the only thing the Williams team can do now is regroup in time for Indianapolis. While Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher scored a dominant one-two for Ferrari on Sunday, both Montoya and team-mate Ralf Schumacher were already back in the pits – the first time this season that both men failed to finish a grand prix.
"It is clear that we are still under-performing against Ferrari," Montoya added. "Over a race distance they are still well ahead of us."
Patrick Head, the technical director of Williams, admits that his team has a long way to go before it will be a threat to the Scuderia.
"The gap technically between the Ferrari this year and our car is big," Head said. “We are certainly getting a new transmission for next year. Obviously, we’re not happy with the results we have achieved this year. Only next year will we see whether or not we’ve taken a good step forward."
Montoya set an F1 record at the weekend with a qualifying lap that averaged almost 260 km/h to break a 17-year-old record set by Keke Rosberg in a turbocharged Honda at Silverstone. But, as CARtoday.com reported on Monday, the race was a different story.
"The higher speed circuits have suited us quite well in that past," Head said. "Over the past few years we have generally been more competitive at Hockenheim and Monza than we have been at other tracks."