Q&A: Juan Pablo Montoya.

Williams-BMW driver Juan Pablo Montoya talks about the forthcoming United States Grand Prix, the difference between F1 and CART and a lot more:

Q: Juan Pablo Montoya - you probably have run more laps at Indianapolis than any driver in this year's USGP except for Jacques Villeneuve, but none are on the road circuit. How do you prepare for the road circuit, and how well-suited is it to the Compaq BMW Williams car?

Juan Pablo Montoya: I think the circuit is pretty good. I drove around it when they were building it back in 1999 and 2000, before the Indy 500. So I know the circuit quite well in that perspective. It's a pretty good circuit. I think it's a circuit where we should be very strong, because I think power does count, and I think we've got plenty of that.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the difference in the mental attitude from going from a series like CART, which was really a driver's series, to Formula One, which is a driver's series and a car series? The car makes a big difference there.

JPM: Well, I think in both circuits, you know, the driver counts. I don't know. I think Formula One, you've got to be competitive to be able to win it, and I think CART you can win not from any team, but there is a wider range of things you could win. So as long as your here in a competitive team, what happens is you're going to be strong in some places, some others you won't be so strong. But, you know, I think mentally it is very tough, Formula One. I think the cars are a bit more complicated than the Champ Cars.

Q: Does the fact that you've won the Indianapolis 500 still get you a lot of respect among your peers over in F1? I know some people might have said, "Hey, that's oval racing," and you guys were doing the most competitive, perhaps complicated, road racing in the world. Talk about going over there as an Indy 500 champion and what doors it has opened for you.

JPM: Well I think it's part of all my resume, you know. Winning the Indy 500, winning the CART Championship have been the biggest two goals I've done in my career, and I think that it's something really special. I think it's in my heart, and I've got great memories from that. It does give you, people know what you are made of basically.

Q: You've been very competitive this year, but yet you have so many DNF's so far. How did your experience from last year come into play where you were in a similar situation with Ganassi in CART?

JPM: Well, you know in Ganassi the second year, we had a lot of problems as well in the car. There was a lot DNF's, like 14 or 15 DNF's in a year, and that was very difficult. I thought when I was going to come here it was going to be much better in that perspective, but you know, it's been very tough. I would say I've been very lucky in some perspectives. I haven't done many mistakes in the races.

You know, that's racing. You can't really do anything about it. You have just got to work with the team to make it better.

Q: Having run in Indianapolis for the Indy 500 and now running for the USGP, mentally how do you prepare for the two kinds of races, one an oval and one a road circuit?

JPM: Well, they are two different races, and it's not that easy, you know. We've been working really hard with the team to make it possible, you know, and to go out to the Indy is going to be a hard race like any other race. It's a bit like in an oval, but the amount of time you can lose if the car is not really good in the set up is amazing.

Q: Juan you are a very aggressive driver. Where did you first start racing to make you that type of a driver?

JPM: I started in go-karts, and I don't consider myself that aggressive. I think I am as aggressive as any other driver here. I think, of course, there are smoother drivers and more aggressive drivers. I think I could be, within the smooth drivers, I could be quite aggressive, but I don't know. It's just that I'll do anything for winning. You know, you have to really push it to the edge, and you've got to really find it.

Q: We know you're an independent kind of guy from your days in the US. Does F1 allow for any type of friendships between drivers and people outside the team and even with your own teammate? Or is it just kind of discouraged, it's so competitive?

JPM: Well, it is very competitive, but it is not something that - I don't know, you don't really talk to anybody, to be honest. I thought you would, but you don't. You are more into yourself and you're so busy all day that you don't get much time to spare to talk to other drivers.

Q: And your teammate?

JPM: I think he is the person that I least talk to.

Q: How tough is Michael Schumacher? How have you found him? How does he compare with the drivers in America that you've raced against?

JPM: Well, I think Michael is a very good driver, and I think one thing he has is a lot of experience. But at the same time he has a lot of experience, he just never stops pushing, and I think that's what makes him be so competitive. I think he has a great car as well. You know, I think he is a really good driver, and that makes quite a lot of difference.

As compared with American drivers, I think there are good drivers in America, and I was competitive in America. I won the championship there, and I've been competitive here, so I think most series are quite competitive. I think Formula One has a lot more technology.

Q:F rom the outside, it seems like this track (Indianapolis) would really suit you guys. BMW has the horsepower to go faster on the long straightaway here at the speedway, plus this is a track that's really good in terms of driver control, something that is very important. I mean, do you agree with those thoughts? And what are your thoughts going into this race?

JPM: Well, you know, I haven't driven the track, so it is very difficult to say exactly what I think of it. I think from what I've seen so far, it looks like a really good track. I think what you've said is true, and I think that that track is going to suit us quite well, and hopefully, if it doesn't come early, it would be nice if a win could come there.

Q: Not only are you a rookie in Formula One, but you've got the new Michelin tyres to work with there. Talk a little bit about that and, you know, not having driven any laps at speed at the Brickyard road course, do you think that you guys have got a tyre that will have something for them when they get there?

JPM: Yes, I think we'll be quite competitive. I think it's going to take a bit of time to really get there and work with that. But from what I've seen so far, I would definitely think that we are looking quite strong.

Q: You spent a lot of time with Williams last year at Indy. Did you get a chance to learn the general setup for the race?

JPM: Well, you know, every year the car is different. You've got something new in the car, so you can't really go and say, "Yes, I've learned the set up." Because my driving style is different, but the team has a lot of data from the previous year, and we'll see how that applies.

Q: Yesterday in the press conference, you made a comment about if it was for the money, you would have stayed in the United States. Could you talk a little bit more about why you left the money and went for Formula One? And do you plan on ending your driving career as a Formula One driver?

JPM: I think I will end my career at this point as a Formula One driver. It could change in five years' time, but at the moment, this is what I wanted to do, and I think I saw I really accomplished everything that I wanted to accomplish in America, and I had a great opportunity to come to the Williams' team. It was a bit of a sacrifice in money. The money wasn't huge, but that was my decision. I think it was done properly.

Q: Has been going back to F1, has that felt like going home? And has there been any real changes that you had to get used to that were really different that what you experienced in your racing career?

JPM: Well, I think the car is completely different from what I was used to, and that it really didn't make it any easier. It was just a matter of time of getting used to and learning to work with the team and learning to get everything together, and when you do that, then things work much better.

Q: But personally, did it feel like going home?

JPm: No. Really, at this point, I felt that home was really America. I was now spending over three year there, and I really felt like I was really happy there.

Q: Formula One, is it more demanding on your time? Do you have more or less free time than you did when you were racing in the United States?

JPM: It's a bit less. I think you've got about the same amount of appearances and the sponsorship dates, but you have got a lot more testing because of the rules. You know we test nearly every week after a race.

Q: Do you feel that you have more free time, or do you have time on your own?

JPM: I wouldn't say I've got a lot more time, you know, free time. I think I had before more free time than now. I think that the last three weeks we had a pretty good break, but now we have to wait and see what happens now.

Q: What would it mean to you to become the first driver to win both the Indy and the U.S. Grand Prix?

JPM: I think first I have to win it, but I think it would be something really special. Imagine that - that would be really nice, especially, you know, I won Indy in my rookie year and to get the win there in the U.S. Grand Prix in my rookie year, it would be just fantastic. But from saying it to doing it is a long way.

Q: If you read Autosport all of the time, you read about the press and the politics and all the crap. Everybody is trying to pit driver against driver in the media. Is it just a pain in the (butt) to you? Are you kind of sick of that?

JPM: I'll be honest with you, I don't really pay any attention to it. Sometimes you read.. but actually, the best way so that it doesn't bother you is not to read it. Ignore it. You just go and, even it gets to a point that you know everything is just exactly as you say, bull(****).

Q: You made a reference to your teammate and spending less time with him. Can you elaborate on that just a little bit, because your teammate is one that has received a lot of that combat with you in the media?

JPM: Really, there is nothing there. He is doing his job, I am doing mine, and that is as far as that goes. We sit down together with engineers and work together for the best interest of the team. But, you know, I think he's quite reserved, and I'm quite reserved, as well, so that's the way it works.

Q: Talk a little bit about this race (Indianapolis) in particular. Obviously, this is a big market for BMW. Is there any other pressure on you guys at all to make a big splash here in America?

JPM: Not really. I think America is huge market, but I think the bigger pressure is racing in Germany. It's another race that you have to try to do your best. It's something. It's a place where you have got to try to fine-tune everything and try to get the best out of it.

Q: What kind of advantages do you guys think you'll have over other teams at this track?

JPM: At Indy, I think we're going to have great power in the car, and our engine is really good, so I think it is a track that is going to suit us quite well like Germany did.

Q: Would you talk a little bit about the difference in the pressure in the team from the early part of the season when the pressure was to show that you had a car that could do it to now showing that you've got the car and now you've go the pressure to win every weekend?

JPM: Well, you always have the pressure to win and to try to do the best you can with the car, but you know, an example is last week. I did a great week, and everything went well. Then in the middle of the race, something happened, and you know, that's racing. Out of that, what can they say? It's a
mistake that happens, and that's the way it goes with racing.

Q: In the early part of the season, there were some questions about the car and the engine combination. Now that's pretty much established. Do you feel an extra added pressure now to perform, or has it been pretty much the same?

JPM: It's always the same pressure. It's not a huge pressure. You know you become part of the team and you just go out and work with everybody to get the best out of it.

Q: What do you miss most about life in America? What aspect of American life do you miss the most?

JPM: I think I miss a lot of the guys in America, saying they were great guys -you know, Jimmy (Vasser), my teammate, Dario (Franchitti), Paul Tracy - all of those guys were something special, and they were just great. It was good fun.

Q: Look at earlier in the year, it just seems like you and Michael Schumacher had kind of a magnet to each other both personally and racing wise. Do you have discussions with him? Did you talk to him about - because he was pretty critical, I think, early, and can you talk about your relationship there with Michael?

JPM: There is none, to be honest. You know, I think he is doing like everything, and I think, you know people are very reserved here, and I think the only thing I can say is as soon as they see he could be a threat, they have got to react to it.

Q: Can you talk about how your car just seems to be cursed this year? Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

JPM: That's racing. There's nothing you can do about it. I think the team is doing the best job they can, and apart from that, you cannot do much more really. You know, in every race we try to do our best. We try to get the best out of the car every weekend, and you know, sometimes things work better than others.

Q: Can you compare the road course at the Brickyard to any of the F1 circuits that you run on? We know that every racing circuit is different. It has it's own personality, but are there any similarities to any place that you really run anywhere else?

JPM: I really couldn't really tell you that. It's difficult because I could say maybe something like Hockenheim, but you know Hockenheim is long, straight and you don't have much gains where there's a lot of hairpin stairs. It's, you know, it's straight and it's really long, and it would be quite crucial to see what happens.

Q: You know at your age, and you look at Michael and 50 victories in Formula One, how amazing is that to you? Do you think that if you could get a streak going, you could be up in that category when you are in your 30s?

JPM: Yes, I think you can still be in Formula One when you are in your early 30s, but, you know, I think it is very personal when you say you want to retire.

Q: What about the fact, you know, you look at him and he has 50 victories. Is that kind of amazing to you?

JPM: Not really. I think he's always been in really good team, and he is a very good driver, so I think that is why he has got them, and I'm sure he's going to get a lot more before he retires.

Q: In the Indy cars, it seems like the driver has a lot of input into the setting up of the automobile, the race car. In Formula One, is that true with the driver? Does he have that much to say about it?

JPM: Yes, I think everything goes around what the driver says and what the drivers feel.

Q: Talk a little bit about some of your fellow rookie drivers. How do you rate them? Is Kimi Raikkonen probably the best of the other rookies out there?

JPM: Well, I think Kimi has done a really good job in being in his first year and with so little experience. You never know. Enrique Bernoldi has done a good job. It's very difficult to really tell because sometimes a car doesn't really allow them to show performance.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the role of the test driver in Formula One? I don't think Americans quite understand what kind of drivers are in as test drivers in F1, and then what kind of role they play in the team. Do you use the information that they provide?

JPM: Yes, the test driver at the moment is Marc Gene. We come marching in, and he has to be a Formula One driver. He is a guy with a lot of experience. He is a guy that can drive the car as well as we do, and you know, sometimes there are so many things to test and try with the car, that we don't really have the time to do it. Because sometimes they are given three cars to test, and we only have two drivers, so the test driver is like an extra support for the team.

Q: You would say that it's also kind of used sometimes as a stepping stone for guys, too? Did you ever think that maybe that was a way that maybe you could get to Formula One?

JPM: Yes, because that was the way I started with Williams. That was my first connection with Williams.

Q: Of all of the differences in an F1 car between CART, the narrow track, the grooved
tyres, the addition of launch control, traction control, starting at Barcelona, what aspect of an F1 car was most difficult for you to adjust to this year?

JPM: I think the car is very critical to drive, it is very unpredictable to setup changes, and the setup makes so much more difference than other cars. You know, in car, CART is responsive to setup changes, but this one is a lot more, and it's very critical, and it is quite difficult to drive.