Mark Blundell: (on Juan-Pablo Montoya‘s final season in F1) Juan Pablo Montoya is, for me, one of the best drivers' behind the wheel in terms of car control. I was left frustrated though because I am a big supporter of him in terms of his abilities, but he never quite gave us 100 per cent. I think in the end that was his downfall. We saw 95 per cent of him, but the last 5 per cent is what is required to compete at the very, very top of F1. I don't think we ever saw that from him and it is a crying shame, because I think he had a lot, lot more to offer.
Earlier on his career he also said Montoya he had the talent to become the next Shumacher or Senna, He was Shumi’s teammate and competed against Montoya in CART.

“The last stars I saw in F1 were (Ayrton) Senna and, even if he won only one world championship, Jacques Villeneuve. If we want, we could also add (Juan Pablo) Montoya. Now, instead, we have only champions.”
Flavio Briatore,

Nick Fry recently said that Montoya would have developed different if he had raced from Honda. Implying he never fulfill his true potential with Mclaren.

David HOBBS: Well, people are pretty fickle. They can change allegiances pretty quickly when they have to. Juan Pablo Montoya will be very missed in Formula One, and I don’t think he deserved the rap he got because by and large he didn’t bond very well with McLaren and the car but at Williams in 2002 he had like eight straight poles and he won like six or seven races. The kid is quick. I think he’s more suited to Formula One than he is to NASCAR, myself, but time will tell. He might find NASCAR a lot more difficult that he thinks it’s going to be.

Murray Walker. Montoya is a future superstar. He still has things to learn, he’s still not a complete driver. I’d like to see Jensen Button win because he’s a nice bloke and because he’s an Englishman and because he’s done extremely well to get where he is”

Ron Dennis "The accident that hurt his shoulder was very counter-productive," Dennis told reporters at Shanghai. "It took that year out of play and created some tensions, but not any that anyone created other than the circumstances that existed as a result of it."

Dennis went on to praise Montoya as a very quick driver adding that, "he brought more color to the team and to the sport."

"He's a great talent and we're sad to see him go," Frank Williams

"Juan Pablo has everything a Formula One world champion requires" said double world champion Emerson Fittipaldi.

"Juan Pablo is gifted with superb car control and raw natural talent, but he has to learn that you can't do everything with talent alone," added Berger. "He's got to develop a cooler, more analytical attitude so that he can help improve his car's performance throughout a Grand Prix weekend.” Gerhard Berger

"Interlagos 2001, the greatest overtaking move of the last 10 years"- Peter Windsor

"There is not enough room to pass a sheet of paper between cars with Montoya's overtakings" Mika Hakkinen.

"Juan Pablo overtakes when the opportunity is invisible to the others" Frank Williams

I like this one..
Allesandro Zanardi:
"when I think of Stewart I think of a driver that was simply happy with his three championships. Of course that’s a lot, but...” Zanardi chooses his words carefully, so as to not be unfair in his criticism: “These guys – Lauda, Schumacher... I’ve never seen them win a race spectacularly!

..That’s why I admire Montoya. Of course he’s crazy, of course right now he’s having some troubles, but he’s one of the few that even in this supertechnological F1 is capable of every now and then come up with something unexpected. Some F1 people say, for instance, that Montoya can drive aggressively on cold tires, try overtaking moves on the outside and so on, because of his U.S. experience with all the yellow flag restarts. ..To me, that’s BS. The reality is, people like him, like Greg Moore was, they just enjoy doing this, they enjoy trying when everybody’s saying it’s not possible – and those are the moments which become memorable.

“In racing, you can win a title alternating wins with good results, but emotionally I’m on the side of the ones who even when they have a second-place finish in the pocket, they put all their chips back on the table to try and go for the win.”


Montoya: F1 will miss your personality and racing... Best of luck in NASCAR.