Juan Pablo
Montoya

Juan Pablo Montoya was born in Bogotá on 20 September 1975. He started karting at the age of five and moved into car racing in Colombia at 17. He went on to compete in the American Barber Saab Pro Series, the Formula Vauxhall Lotus championship in 1995 and British Formula 3 in 1996. In International Formula 3000 he finished second in 1997 and won the title in 1998 with Super Nova Racing. In 1998 he also worked as a Williams test driver.

In 1999 he joined Chip Ganassi Racing in CART. He won the championship as a rookie, taking seven victories, and in 2000 he won the Indianapolis 500 on his first attempt.

Montoya made his Formula One debut with Williams in 2001. He took his first win at the Italian Grand Prix that year, the first by a Colombian in Formula One, and finished sixth in the world championship. In 2002 he claimed seven pole positions and was third in the standings. In 2003 he won at Monaco and in Germany and again finished third. In 2004 he was fifth overall and won the season finale in Brazil.

He moved to McLaren for 2005, winning in Britain, Italy and Brazil and finishing fourth, although an injury kept him out of two races. In 2006 he was third at San Marino and second at Monaco. He left Formula One after the United States Grand Prix and ended the year eighth. Altogether he made 94 starts and took seven wins, 30 podiums and 13 pole positions. He never won the title, and his best championship position was third.

After Formula One, Montoya raced in NASCAR, winning in the Cup Series at Sonoma in 2007 and at Watkins Glen in 2010. In 2014 he moved to IndyCar with Team Penske. He won the Indianapolis 500 for a second time in 2015 and was runner-up in the championship to Scott Dixon. In sports car racing he won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2007, 2008 and 2013. In 2019 he and Dane Cameron took the IMSA championship in the DPi class, and in 2021 he won his class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2017 he also won the individual event at the Race of Champions. His son Sebastián is also a racing driver.

Source: Wikipedia, “Juan Pablo Montoya”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.