Outside Line: Juan Pablo Montoya is persona non grata on this website until he gets back on his meds

Tuesday, 05 May 2026 at 19:48

I really don't know what's gone wrong with Juan Pablo Montoya, a racer I truly respected for many years, but I am thinking of late that he might have bumped his head because something seems amiss with the guy we thought we knew.

In my opinion, of late, Monty (Python?) has been talking so much cr@p about our sport that we will not be using his quotes on this website until he gets treatment or they put him back on his meds.

It has been a while now that Montoya has been a talkative Duracell bunny praising these new, universally disliked and inappropriate Formula 1 regulations kicked off in Melbourne. The Colombian motorsport veteran has been shamelessly shilling like I have never seen an ex-driver do before, to the detriment of his image and legacy.

Prior to this year, you could count on motor mouth Montoya to provide truth bombs that maybe some F1 paddock piranhas did not want to hear, and that is what we respected about him. He always spoke his mind, and we could identify with that truth, therefore he was an important contributor to the narrative.

But the advent of these new F1 rules, which everyone knows, including Formula 1, are a disaster, means that only exceptional drivers, like the ones we see among the top 10 on the grid today, are going to get their heads around these silly cars.

And I am not alone in saying it. Everyone on GRANDPRIX247 thinks the same, and has thought so and written about it from day one. From then on, we expected verification from a trusted voice.

Montoya was one of the guys we believed knew what he was talking about, but what came out of his mouth shortly after was obscene. I thought he had hit his head somewhere. Seriously, Monty?

Does Montoya have a vendetta against Verstappen?

f1 mexican gp 2016 max verstappen red bull racing talks with juan pablo montoya

To 'stick a knife' in Max Verstappen’s back as constantly as he has this whole season is wholly unacceptable, and more so now, after Verstappen delivered one of the most amazing races I have seen a driver produce in his legendary style on Sunday.

After the Miami Grand Prix, quoted by BBC, Montoya insisted that Verstappen needed to be served with 7 or 8 penalty points on his super licence for criticising the regulations: "I’m okay with you not liking the regulations, but the way you are speaking about what you’re living off and your own sport, there should be consequences."

And then he doubled down on his blatant stupidity with arguably the dumbest quote uttered by any motorsport fan, let alone Montoya: "I think Max has got such a skill set at spinning cars and getting it going again at the right point. You say that’s talent? I thought it was pure luck."

We clearly saw that Max does not have the best car. He somehow stuck it on the front row, overdid it on the opening lap, maybe did a 360 pirouette to save the thing, dropped a few places into the heart of the midfield, changed his whole strategy, and might have won the race had a little bit of luck come his way.

And Montoya has the audacity, or rather the stupidity, to call out Verstappen and say that he needs points docked on his super licence. And if what we all saw on that opening lap you do not see as pure skill and insane talent, you are following the wrong sport.

What is Montoya smoking or snorting, or has he not taken his meds? Has he gone the loony route of F1 Chief Stefano Domenicali? Or have they both been afflicted by some kind of brain-eroding disease? How did they become so outrageously stupid so fast, all at the same time?

Montoya from admired racer and trusted F1 pundit to sell out?

montoya schumacher raikkonen monaco f1 2003 grand prix

I have to ask why has Montoya been abducted by spin? Is this co-ordinated to help someone or people save face? What has happened that, overnight, a guy who often spoke sense, shot from the hip, and whose narrative you could trust has suddenly become a sell out?

Then I look around the motorsport landscape, and think, who is Monty shilling for? First of all, is he earning a lot of cash? Is someone giving him a lot of money to talk shite? Or is he just happy to be there for free tickets and accommodation, to be a banana?

Is Monty currying favour so that his son, Sebastián Montoya, can progress in Formula 2? Or is he saying all the “right” things because he wants a team to consider his son

Because if he was honest about new Formula 1 the way we expected him to be, with the truth bombs that were his custom, they might malign his son. I am not saying this is true, but it could be.

Then, of course, there is a final possibility: Maybe he bumped his head one night?

Whatever the case, Montoya is, from now on, persona non grata on this website. Something we have never done before, but such is his deceit we will not be using his quotes to launch and headline reports as we have done so many times

The only Monty-related content we will report will be at times like this, when he makes a gaffe. We will call him out. And keep an eye on his silliness.