“Max really put his best foot forward” Juan Pablo Montoya believes Max Verstappen was a ‘class apart’ in 2022

Juan Pablo Montoya expresses confidence in Max Verstappen's ability to replicate his Championship success in 2023.

“Max really put his best foot forward” Juan Pablo Montoya believes Max Verstappen was a ‘class apart’ in 2022

Max Verstappen (L) and Juan Pablo Montoya (R)

Juan Pablo Montoya has recently expressed his admiration of reigning World Champion Max Verstappen. Montoya is a former F1 driver who competed in the category between 2001 and 2006. During his stint in the pinnacle of motorsports, Montoya collected 7 wins and 13 poles from 94 appearances. He raced for Williams and McLaren during his relatively short but successful F1 career. Since his retirement from Formula One, Montoya has competed in NASCAR, IMSA and IndyCar.

Verstappen was crowned the 2022 Driver’s World Champion in Japan with 4 races still left. Many consider the Dutchman’s 2022 season to be one of the greatest individual performances by a driver in the modern era. Especially since Verstappen started the season on the back foot. His Red Bull RB17 was considerably slower than the competition. After a few bad results, Verstappen returned to form and collected a record breaking 15 wins over the course of the season.

Owing to the Red Bull driver’s stellar performances, Montoya has expressed his admiration for Verstappen and commented on his state of mind . “I think Max is in a very good situation mentally. He knows he can beat anyone. If you also have a car with which you can win, it looks good for you. Then he will certainly get the job done again,” the former F1 driver said.

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“The car was not so good,” Juan Pablo Montoya credits Max Verstappen for extracting performance out of the RB17

Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen

During his interview with Motorsport.com, Montoya was asked if Verstappen can recreate his past success with Red Bull in 2023. “Last year Max had to take it up a notch because the car was not so good at first. But if you look at how Checo did at the beginning of the season, Max took a huge step during the year. Max really had to put his best foot forward, but he did and that was cool to see. ” he said.

Montoya then mentioned the implications of Red Bull’s penalty for going over the budget cap for 2022. “To what extent Red Bull will suffer from the penalty they received for exceeding the budget ceiling in 2021? I have no idea. They had to pay a $ 7 million fine and can spend 10 percent less time testing aerodynamics for 12 months. Of course they do a lot with computer simulations nowadays, but I really don’t know what impact the test reduction will have on the performance of the team.” Montoya concluded.

Clearly the Reigning World Champion is still the favorite to take home yet another World title this season. It will be interesting to see whether Scuderia Ferrari can mount a successful challenge under new leadership and renewed ambitions. While Montoya is optimistic about Verstappen’s chances, 2023 promises to be a challenge like no other.

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