Posted 19 September 2002 - 21:37
For instance F1racing-live have run the "Teleconference with Juan Pablo Montoya" story there today, i haven't noticed it on Atlas or anywhere else
Teleconference with Juan Pablo Montoya
Prior to the USGP [19/09/02 - 06:32]
Juan Pablo Montoya
As a Formula One rookie in 2001, BMW Williams driver, Juan Pablo Montoya recorded four podium finishes including his first F1 victory at the Italian Grand Prix, the scene of last weekends fifteenth round of the season. Juan is currently third in the 2002 drivers championship and has recorded seven podium finishes throughout the year so far with two races remaining on the Formula One schedule.
During the Italian GP weekend, the Colombian driver took part in a teleconference, hosted by Mr Josh Laycock, with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, venue of the penultimate round next weekend, and the following is a transcript from the session.
Juan Pablo Montoya Hello.
Mr. Josh Laycock. Hello, Juan. Thanks for joining us today.
Juan Pablo Montoya How are you?
Mr. Josh Laycock. Just great. First of all, I just wanted to ask you a brief question. Could you give us an overview of how you think your season has gone so far?
Juan Pablo Montoya I think this year has been pretty good. We've been a bit unlucky, but I think it's gone pretty well. It's a bit disappointing that we haven't been able to fight more with Ferrari this year. We thought at the beginning of the year we had a better chance, but that's the way things have been going.
Question Juan Pablo, your team had high expectations before the season started, but you turned those around dominating the whole season. How frustrating is this as a driver to see a rival get the best package out there including the Bridgestone tyres?
Juan Pablo Montoya I think it is not only the tyres that make a difference, their car is stronger generally speaking. It makes it quite difficult to really do anything about it. It's a bit frustrating sometimes but we have got to try as hard as we can to beat them.
Question The early part of the season you had five or six pole positions yet when we got into the race something would happen. Was that mostly due to the traction control?
Juan Pablo Montoya No. I think generally speaking, there's been a lot of things that we wanted to go our way and they didn't. I think the performance of our car no matter what the tyres, is not that good. Every race we are trying to improve the tyres and we're trying to improve the consistency of the car. Just sometimes it's not quick enough.
Question Good morning, Juan. You recently, Frank said that the team made a bit of a mistake by not risking enough with this year's chassis and next year's FW25 is going to be revolutionary. Can you tell me a little bit about next year's car and the balance between pushing too much or not enough?
Juan Pablo Montoya It's very difficult to say now how next year's car is going to be. It is still early days for this. I know the team has been working really hard, basically 24 hours a day in the wind tunnel and in every other area, trying to come up with a much better package for next year. But, it's always a risk when you come up with something extreme, it might be really good, but by trying something extreme you might get lost. Hopefully the team will make the right call on that. I know everybody wants to win and that within the team everybody is trying as hard as they can to do the best they can.
Question Good to speak with you again, Juan. I'm curious. There's a program in the works to take a couple of the young American drivers through the proper European junior formulas in an effort to get them to F1. Knowing what you know about racing here in America, I'm wondering how helpful do you think that might be to the popularity of Formula One racing here?
Juan Pablo Montoya I think it would help. I think it is a big and important step for them to come to Europe for a couple of years. When I went to America to do CART it was really good. CART helped me a lot because it has long races, straight unit and it very physical. So when I came back into Formula One everything went really smooth and very well. It's so hard to say exactly where to go and what to do. I hope CART will survive because at the moment it's the only form of single seater in America and it's a top runner that does road courses, street courses, and all that. I think that experience does help. When you first drive Formula One it is a very powerful car, very light and very reactive. I so think that the combination of driving between the oval and the road courses just gives you a lot more experience.
Question To follow up, this is a country that has a lot of different sports going on and a lot of different motor sports. Formula One is kind of viewed as a niche market in the United States. How important do you think it is to Formula One to develop a big fan base in the United States?
Juan Pablo Montoya I think it's important. I think it's important not only to the United States but worldwide and this is why Formula One is so strong worldwide. Getting into the American market, as you said, is very difficult especially, as you know, Americans have got so many types of motorsport from Nascar, CART, IRL, you name it. It's too many varieties of motorsport to get full funds. Involving Formula One I think it is quite difficult as there is only one race hosted there. I think if people were to really understand the amount of technology that is put into a Formula One car, compared with any other formula, or any other motorsport at the moment they would be amazed. How light the car is, etc. Generally speaking the car is just amazing.
Question I wanted to ask you. You know you're coming back to the Speedway for the second time in the Formula One race. You have an opportunity to do something even Michael Schumacher can't do, and that is win the 500 and win the US Grand Prix. How much effort and what would it mean to you to accomplish that feat?
Juan Pablo MontoyaI think it would mean a lot. I think last year I was very close to complete that task. If you remember, I was very competitive. I won by Michael and we were in the right strategy at that time. We were looking really good to be able to challenge for the race. But it didn't really go our way, I think it was a gearbox failure that race, but at the end of the day that is the races. It would be the second time I go there but it probably won't be the last time I'll be going there. So we will see what happens.
Question Juan, nice to talk with you again. How do you feel about coming back to the United States and race? I know you had a good time over here. Do you look forward to it, or is it just another race now to you?
Juan Pablo Montoya No. From the technical aspect of it it's another race because everywhere you go you have got to try to win and do best you can. From the sentimental value, it's a bit more, the fact that it's Indianapolis. Another thing is, you've got to remember my team used to be based there, Ganassi is still based there and I have quite good memories from that.
Question Are you going to make plans to see some of your friends over here when you come back again this year?
Juan Pablo Montoya No. I'm probably going to see everybody again, and we'll be sure to make it as interesting as possible.
Question Juan Pablo, you were by far the most popular driver in last year's US Grand Prix, but you did not finish the race. How does the Speedway suit your driving style, and what did you learn from last year?
Juan Pablo Montoya I think the Speedway is a pretty good circuit and I think it's got a lot of rhythm. I think it's very important to have good balance of the car. I think that's a key to do well in few races is you need to develop good balance.
Question Juan, a lot has been made recently in the press anyway about WilliamsF1 and McLaren teaming up to take on Ferrari next year and working together on tire advancement. How close do you guys actually work together without giving too much away?
Juan Pablo Montoya I don't think that we actually work together, not only McLaren, but also Renault, Jaguar, you name it, they're all working with Michelin to try and improve the tyres. On average, the tyres works really well. The thing is that Bridgestone they are only concentrating on one team. That makes a bit of an advantage for them at the moment. Generally speaking for the rest of the park, I do think that the Michelin does have a bit of an advantage on the Bridgestone.
Question Juan, I wanted to ask you, you know, you've done real well this season winning poles but then you have to turn around and, like you said earlier, old tyres are going to slow you down. How frustrating is it? You went through the season in CART where you were the king dog and everybody chased you. How frustrating is it to chase Michael race after race?
Juan Pablo Montoya It's hard. It's not frustrating. At the moment he has better equipment than what everybody else has got and he makes it hard to beat. It's not as if somebody else is beating him and I am not. He just has a better package, it is so strong to beat. The only guy that is close to him sometimes is Rubens.
Question Sometimes it's what?
Juan Pablo Montoya It's Rubens. The only guy to challenge him.
Question Juan, you're coming to the United States … pretty quick. Is that a special meaning to you, or do you think maybe you can beat Schumacher there?
Juan Pablo Montoya It's a special meaning. We always try to beat him. I think at this point whatever type of tyres they bring compared with us is going to be important. I think that the best chance we had to try and beat them was this weekend but they still look very strong.
Question Do you think you can catch up next year?
Juan Pablo Montoya I think next year is going to be a completely different show. We need to see what Ferrari comes up with in the new car. We need to see what BMW WilliamsF1 Team comes up with and Michelin. But I think, next year we should try and close the gap. I know BMW WilliamsF1 is trying to make a big step, but we don't know if it's going to be forward. They are aiming for a big step forward, but you never know if it's going to happen.
Question Is there any rumors over there that Audi may be getting into Formula One?
Juan Pablo Montoya As far as I know, no, to be honest.
Question Juan, you just said a minute ago you thought your chances are better this weekend in the Italian Grand Prix rather than US Grand Prix. Why does that circuit favour you over the US Grand Prix?
Juan Pablo Montoya Because the type of circuit, it is a very fast circuit that you run very little downforce, it is the quickest race of the year. I think when we are not trying to race maximum downforce we look quite competitive.
Question How much downforce does it take to run Indy?
Juan Pablo Montoya Indy, you can run a lot of downforce, or you can run very little because it's such a long straight and the time you lose in the infield by having little downforce you can gain it back. So it makes it quite interesting to see what is really happening.
Question Is it a good circuit for competitiveness?
Juan Pablo Montoya Yes. I think it's a pretty good circuit. It's a very fast circuit. Strategy can come into play a little bit in the race results.
Question Juan, I'm wondering in today's practice for the race in Monza ,did you find any particular area where you might improve so you can get total again tomorrow?
Juan Pablo Montoya I think we looked quite good. I think it's difficult to say what fuel level everybody was running. But from what we can see we do look quite competitive. Normally on Fridays we never looked that competitive. I think we could have been quicker, especially in the infield today we had some traffic. We should be looking quite strong for tomorrow.
Question Today did you do some running preparing for race setup?
Juan Pablo Montoya Normally on Friday you take most information for race setup, and then on Saturday we work on qualifying.
Question At Indianapolis are there more possible places to pass than, say, on a real close circuit like Monaco or even Monza?
Juan Pablo Montoya I think probably Indy is one of the best circuits for overtaking having such a long straight because it's not only the straight but turn one into the oval, and even before that, you start from the infield completely flat out all the way through. So you don't need to get that close to the guy in front of you. I think if you are fairly close by the end of the straight you can try and pass him.
Patrick Wedes
CAPSIS International
Probably to prevent going out of business! 
