Montoya, as a driver who came into F1 during Michael Schumacher’s dominance and was one of very few to show a lack of reverence for the German champion, has issued some advice to Lando Norris on how to handle Max Verstappen’s approach.
Verstappen’s championship lead over Norris shrunk by 10 points over the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend, with the Dutch driver hit with two separate 10-second penalties for his driving while racing with his championship rival.
Verstappen was judged to have pushed the McLaren driver off-track in an incident at Turn 4, before running both out wide through Turn 7 – he picked up a separate penalty for going off-track and gaining an advantage by doing so.
Showing increased aggression on track against his championship rival as the races tick by, Verstappen’s tactics have been the hottest topic in F1 over the Americas triple-header, and Colombian racer Juan Pablo Montoya said he believes the reigning World Champion is “taking the piss” with his approach.
“There are so many exciting things going on, particularly the incidents involving Lando [Norris] and Max [Verstappen],” he told InstantCasino.com.
“I thought Lando was going to step up and take Max out. He needs to do that. The stewards had decided that after Austin they were going to be a lot more strict on Max and penalise him properly. It makes for amazing racing. I think Max takes the piss on how far he takes things. The only way to stop him is to run him over.
“Max needs to know that he has something to fear from Lando. When Carlos [Sainz] dive-bombed him he didn’t give him a fighting chance.
“Lando has way too much respect for him which, in itself, is not a bad thing. Lando is a great guy and he just wants to race fair but you can’t if you’re racing someone like Max who doesn’t race fair. For us watching it is amazing. It’s terrific TV.”
Montoya also believes there’s no reason to come down harder on Verstappen, saying that it’s “great” to see him engage in the tactics he’s employing.
“He knows what the rules are and he pushes them,” he said.
“The first penalty was very clear and 100 percent fair. Lando was there at the apex. He had to give him room and he didn’t.
“The second penalty? When you look at the ways the rules are written, Max never even tried making the corner. Max should have gone back to the track and let Lando by.
“For me, the biggest problem is why give Max a 10-second penalty when Lando got a five-second penalty in Austin? It doesn’t make sense.”
Montoya, who was renowned for showing no fear for anyone he raced against in F1, said Norris’ mistake in dealing with Verstappen has been his outward respect.
To combat this, Montoya claimed, Norris will have to stop “playing the victim” and show Verstappen that he is willing to have a crash with him.
“It is surprising that Lando just gets out of the way. Max is the bully,” he said.
“As a racer, it is not what you want to see but it is a smart play. Max is more used to guys like Lewis [Hamilton] who wouldn’t stop at taking him out.
“Max has two approaches; if he is desperate for pace which the Red Bull has been, Max can try to run Lando over and crash and take the points away or if he doesn’t have the position to do that, he will just ride around and take the points. That’s all he has to do. It’ll be hard for Lando to win from here.
“When you have a guy like Lando who is very fast and a very clean driver, you can’t go trying to fight a championship against Max with Lando saying how much respect he has for him and he’s the best driver in the world!
“You might think that, but he shouldn’t be saying that publicly. I really like Lando, but he needs to speak a little less and not play the victim. You won’t win by playing the victim. You might win some battles, but you are going to lose the war.
“We will see more fireworks in Brazil. F1 is getting so good right now. At some point, Lando needs to stand his ground and say, ‘Screw you, I can crash into you and it’s ok.’”
Verstappen’s take-no-prisoners attitude may yet yield him a fourth consecutive world championship, but Montoya believes he has lost the goodwill of his gridmates and that of the media.
“I wasn’t in the drivers’ meeting afterward to know what happened but, when Max came out, he made it clear nothing was going to change from his side,” Montoya said.
“It’s a way of him telling the stewards and the FIA he doesn’t care what they think. Sooner or later, however, that attitude is going to come back and bite him.
“Remember the last champion who threatened to quit F1 was Lewis and that was after he had been in F1 for five years. He said he hated it, he wanted to give it up and become a musician. That was 10 or more years ago.
“Look at me, I did F1 and hated it. It was too political for me. Something Max said recently summed it all up for me. He said,‘I have the wrong passport.’ That is so true.
“He was alluding to the fact that the British media especially but also the German media controls the sport and how it is portrayed in the media.
“For me it was difficult. I was Colombian and the two seats I got in F1 were as replacements for British drivers, [Jenson] Button and [David] Coulthard. Some British media hated me with their guts. You could see it. That always made it hard.
“The other thing was I had Ralf Schumacher as a team mate and I was the only guy who was making his brother’s life miserable.
“When you have mainstream media from those two countries, it makes it hard. Everything that we read is biased against Max.
“If you read what the Dutch press says, it will be a very different story. They’d probably be saying Lando is a wuss and should have been more aggressive. We never hear the other side of the story because we don’t read the Dutch media. For the world, the Dutch media is irrelevant.”
