Juan Pablo Montoya

Juan Pablo Montoya has one brother and one sister. His father, Pablo Montoya was the one who pushed him to race and has always been his chief supporter. Juan's racing career began at the age of five when he started driving go-karts. He rapidly won his first race and the National Kart Championship in the children's division. In 1986 he was the Kart Champion in the national and local junior division. The 90s saw Juan's career move to an international level, by competing in the Kart Junior World Championship twice (1990, 1991); competing in the Barber Saab Championship, where he finished third (1994); the British Vauxhall Championship, third again (1995); the Marlboro Masters in Zandvoort, Netherlands, fourth and two wins in the British Formula 3 (1996). He also competed in Mexico (1994), Colombia (1992, '95,'96) and in the ITC Race at Silverstone, U.K (1996). 1997 was the beginning of his international fame as a racing pilot because he finished second in the FIA International F3000, behind Ricardo Zonta, and by having a test drive role in the Williams F1 team, joining World Champion Jacques Villeneuve and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. In 1998, he concentrated fully on his formula 3000 assault as he had joined a new team, Super Nova, and managed to take the title after a good, season long tussle with Nick Heidfeld. In 1999 he was supposed to have a full season seat at the Williams team, but they decided to "lend" him to the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing team, where he had an impressive season by winning the Rookie of the Year, and the CART Championship after 7 wins, 7 poles and a hard battle against Scottish driver Dario Franchitti. He continued in CART during 2000, but engine and chassis changes brought a lot of technical problems. However he won 3 races and had 7 pole positions. Besides he took a highly acclaimed motor racing prize: the Indianapolis 500, on his first attempt. Finally he had his Formula 1 race debut in 2001 in the Williams team, having an strong partner, Ralf Schumacher. At the beginning of the season he experienced a lot of technical problems but finished his first F1 race in second position at the Grand Prix of Spain. However the latter half of the year was an improvement for the Colombian, as he took 3 pole positions (Germany, Belgium and Italy) and a victory, after only 15 starts, at the Grand Prix of Italy at Monza. Besides that he finished second at Europe and Japan. He scored points in 5 races out of 6 that he finished, what gave him sixth position in the general standings at the end of the year. He also won the Overtaking Maneuver of the Year, for his move on Michael Schumacher in Brazil.