Juan Pablo Montoya Exclusive: Max Verstappen is taking the p***

Formula One legend Juan Pablo Montoya believes that Max Verstappen is ‘taking the piss’ after another heated Grand Prix in Mexico involving the Dutchman and his title rival, Lando Norris.

Speaking to InstantCasino.com, Montoya says that Verstappen’s attitude will backfire on him but that there is also a media bias against the three-time world champion.

The Colombian also weighed in on question marks surrounding Sergio Perez and his future after the Mexican had another disappointing race weekend.

Q. What a race in Mexico. What’s your view of the race as a whole?

Juan Pablo Montoya: “There are so many exciting things going on, particularly the incidents involving Lando [Norris] and Max [Verstappen]. 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 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.”

Q. Max won’t stop at anything will he?

JPM: “Max knows that if they crash it is advantage Max. Max is more used to guys like Lewis [Hamilton] who wouldn’t stop at taking him out. It is surprising that Lando just gets out of the way. Max is the bully. As a racer, it is not what you want to see but it is a smart play.”

Q. Where does this leave the title race both for drivers and the teams?

JPM: “Ferrari is coming. Before Austin, you would have said McLaren would have had the Constructors’ Championship sealed. Now, Ferrari has the best chance. They have two cars scoring and a lesser gap than Lando to Max. That’s crazy if you think about it. After this weekend Red Bull know in their own mind they have lost the constructors’ championship. I don’t see how they can think otherwise.”

Q. Can Lando make up the deficit?

JPM: “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.”

Q. What about Perez and his future?

JPM: “I honestly thought Checo was going to have an amazing race. Before the race, I was talking to somebody on the grid, and I said, ‘I bet you Checo will finish at least eighth today.’ I really thought that he had the pace to do that but he made such a simple mistake. He was too far forward in the grid box. He was not even close. He was half a car off it. It just shows you how much pressure he is under.”

Q. Where does that leave him with Red Bull?

JPM: “If I was Red Bull, I would be putting pressure on him to retire from F1. If I am Checo, I would say, ‘I still have one more year on my contract. I will stick it out. Work with me, not against me.’”

Q. If he did go would Colapinto come in?

JPM: “He has done a really good job but at the same time you look at what Albon has done since Colapinto came in. What is going to happen when Carlos comes in [to Williams]? Is Albon going to be let go?

“I hope he isn’t because he is a great guy and I think he has got plenty of speed. He has been in bad situations out of his control. But the point is when that happens, things start adding up. The pressure mounts and you start thinking, ‘I’m not getting a result’ and things just spiral out of control. This is what Colapinto has made him do.”

Q. If Perez does go, would that place a question mark about the future of the Mexico Grand Prix?

JPM: “It would be a very different race without Checo but it would still be amazing. Mexicans love motorsports in general with or without Checo on the grid. The first year without him may affect the atmosphere and the vibe but if I was behind the Mexico GP and Checo was not racing, I would spend a ton of money on making Checo the ambassador for the race and build everything around Checo.

“Australia will be doing that with Daniel who won’t be on the grid but I guarantee you Daniel will be the ambassador for the Melbourne Grand Prix. He is their boy and they will do all the promotion around him to keep it interesting.

“So short term, no Checo might have a little bit of an effect but the reality is when tickets went on sale last year for Sunday’s race they were sold out within 48 hours. People love coming to Mexico. They love coming to the race and they love the atmosphere. It is always one of the best races. The race on Sunday was amazing and Checo was not relevant.”

Q. What do you make of the Lawson-Perez spat? Does that illustrate the pressure Perez is under given that Lawson is touted as his possible replacement?

JPM: “[Liam] Lawson is trying to prove a point and show that he thinks he is way better than Checo and I am in a worse car. Checo has been waiting and trying to pass him without doing anything. Lawson does not understand that you are not racing in F3 and that there are a lot of major elements in play and that he could have been one of the causes why Red Bull loses the constructors’ championship.

“Checo was on his way to score points despite the five second penalty at the start and he didn’t. Part of the reason he didn’t was because Lawson ran into him. It’s all well and good being aggressive and making his life difficult but Lawson needs to learn when to give up. You’re not driving a saloon and you’re not Max. He couldn’t get away with things like that.

“Christian Horner took him to one side and took him into his office to give him a dressing down. You don’t give your finger to anyone.

“Helmut wants drivers to be aggressive and that’s what he is looking for in the young guys but you can’t behave like that. You can’t do things like that. If you’re winning races you can but when you’re down the grid, he needs to finish races and get points. When you’re a driver you don’t understand how important the Constructors’ championship is. Liam was just trying to prove how good he is because he wants the seat.”

Q. Is he too cocky already?

JPM: “He is trying to prove himself but he’s also trying to prove that he belongs already. I still believe Checo will still be there next year. If not, everyone is fighting for that second seat.

“Yuki Tsonoda has been around for a lot of years and has a lot of experience. Yuki might actually be the guy that deserves the chance in Red Bull. If so, you would have Liam [Lawson] and Isaac Hadjar in RB. That would leave [Franco] Colapinto in a difficult position. If I was Williams, I would not let him go, especially with Carlos coming.

“It’s hard for Franco. There’s not a lot of opportunities out there.”

Q. Should the stewards come down harder on Max earlier in the season. Has he got away with too much for too long?

JPM: “No, the stewards shouldn’t come down harder on Max. I think it is great what he does. He knows what the rules are and he pushes them. The first penalty was very clear and 100 per cent 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 ten second penalty when Lando got a five second penalty in Austin? It doesn’t make sense.”

Q. Is Max a marked man?

JPM: “I wasn’t in the drivers’ meeting afterwards to know what happened but when Max came out he made it clear nothing was going to change from his side. 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.”

Q. Zak Brown from McLaren was pretty upset?

JPM: “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.”

Q. Leclerc is still making mistakes at Ferrari. Is that a worry?

JPM: “When Charles [Leclerc] is ahead, he is the fastest guy. He can control the situation better than anybody and do an unbelievable job but when he is behind and needs to do a little more it is tough, and he makes mistakes.

Q. The progress Ferrari has made bodes well for Lewis Hamilton next year and his battles with Lando and Max next season?

JPM: “Every time Lewis [Hamilton] jumps ship, he does so to a winning car. It is remarkable. It is great for him and hats off to him. He goes to McLaren and starts winning. He leaves McLaren and everyone wonders why. They go to the back of the grid and Lewis goes to Mercedes and wins all those championships. It is uncanny.

“Ferrari are making such improvements and low and behold here comes Lewis. It is unbelievable. I don’t know how he does it but he always lands in a better place. Good for him and it will be great to have Lewis in a Ferrari winning races and potentially the championship. That is a real possibility.”

Q. Will Max get fed up in the end or sooner rather than later and go off and do something else?

JPM: “Remember the last person to say the same thing 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 replacement for British drivers, Button and 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.”

Q. What is Max’s attitude going forward? What will he do? What should he do?

JPM: “Just keep being Max. He is not going to change. He is not going to be bothered about it.

“I think he will end up being more aggressive, not less aggressive. This is because he knows how much it bothers everyone at McLaren, including Lando.

“In my opinion, Max is going to go bananas. It just makes more sense. They go to Brazil and take each other on the first corner, it’s a win for Max and it hurts two ways, in the Constructors’ championship and the Drivers’ championship.

“The younger generation emerging are very, very good. If I was an F1 boss and you see what [Franco] Colapinto does and gets beat by some of the other young drivers, the boss is going to think how good are the others then?

“What Colapinto has shown unbelievably is how mature and calm he is about everything. He has not been overwhelmed by the F1 circus. He has not been fazed by it.

Q. How important might it be to have a South American champion to boost the sport there?

JPM: “I don’t think people care where you’re from. What really matters is how good you are at the end of the day. It is important perhaps for sponsors and that point of view. For me as a racer it is what you can deliver.”

Q. Finally, what’s going to happen in Brazil?

JPM: “We will see more fireworks. 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.’”