Hanno distrutto mentalmente Ralf Schumacher

(IlMotorsport-Total.com) – Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya are the most successful Williams drivers of this millennium. Ten out of the eleven Grand Prix victories that the traditional racing team achieved since the turn of the century were credited to this duo. Schumacher triumphed six times for Williams, while Montoya won four times. Even though the Colombian came out on top in their internal team duel in the World Championship three times in four years between 2001 and 2004, he praises Schumacher in the Beyond the Grid podcast.

“Ralf was so good,” he reports there, explaining that the German’s speed gave him great difficulties at the beginning of his time in Formula 1. “He was so fast. He played with me for so long. It was so annoying, it was so tough,” Montoya recalls.

It is important to note that in 2001, Montoya joined Williams as a Formula 1 rookie, while teammate Schumacher was already in his third year at Williams and his fifth season in the top class overall. “The things he could do in one lap with a car, that was incredible,” Montoya remembers.

But possibly for that reason, Montoya admits that it was “frustrating” that he couldn’t keep up with the German in the beginning. In fact, Schumacher won three races in the mentioned season of 2001 and finished fourth in the World Championship at the end of the year. Montoya “only” achieved one victory and finished sixth in the championship. And particularly in one lap, Schumacher was regularly faster than his teammate at the beginning of the year. It wasn’t until the sixth race of the season in Spielberg that Montoya was able to beat Schumacher in qualifying for the first time.

In the following years, the balance of power shifted slightly, but according to Montoya, it had nothing to do with pure speed. Schumacher had a different “problem,” said the Colombian, claiming, “I mentally destroyed him.”

“Nowadays, with social media and all, teammates are best friends, go out to eat together and play paddle together. In my time, you didn’t talk to anyone,” explains Montoya, stressing that the paddock was “very hostile” back then.

“I talked to Fernando [Alonso] and still do. And sometimes with Rubens [Barrichello] and Massa [Felipe]. And that’s it,” says the Colombian, revealing about his relationship with Schumacher: “We never really talked to each other.”

Montoya explains that as a race car driver, if you are “nice” to another driver, “it’s hard to be an asshole [on the track]. And it’s hard to make a move where you push the other off the track if you like him.”

He learned this lesson in his time before Formula 1 in America. Team owner Chip Ganassi, for whom he won the Indianapolis 500 in 2000, once criticized him for not being tough enough against another driver on the track.

“He got mad at me and said, ‘If you want friends, bring them with you. You’re not here to make friends.’ And that’s true,” emphasizes Montoya, who therefore had no interest in building a friendship with Schumacher – which, by the way, was mutual.

“I never liked my teammates,” Schumacher himself also revealed some time ago in the Formula For Success podcast, explaining, “The teammate was always the first one you had to beat.”

After the 2004 season, Schumacher and Montoya’s paths finally separated. The German moved to Toyota in 2005, Montoya to McLaren. Schumacher continued in the top class until the end of 2007, while Montoya bid farewell back to America by mid-2006.

Both were unable to win a Formula 1 World Championship title, but along with Montoya, former Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost also revealed in an interview on the Formel1.de YouTube channel some time ago that Schumacher “definitely had the talent” for it.