DragonSpeed’s Juan Pablo Montoya says that his team is ready to start picking up better results after throwing away victory chances in the opening two races of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship season.
Montoya, along with team-mates Henrik Hedman and Ben Hanley, currently sits third in the LMP2 Pro/Am standings after two rounds, finishing third at Spa and second at Portimao.
The Colombian, however, reckons that the team has thrown away chances at victory in the opening two rounds and wants a clean race at Monza to try and capture the American squad’s first win of the season.
“With the Pro/Am class, we had two podiums in the first two races,” Montoya said. “The idea is to try to start getting some wins. I think we’ve been in positions to win the races, and we have kind of throw them away.”
“We made some mistakes, and it’s been kind of painful to say we’ve thrown away some good results. We are really looking forward to a clean race.”
Montoya is in his first full season of the FIA World Endurance Championship, although he has competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice – once with DragonSpeed, and once with United Autosports.
“The other thing that it’s been really interesting is we’re doing been doing a lot of work on the car, doing a lot of changes on the car,” he continued. “It’s been nice, you know, developing the car.
‘For me, that’s probably one of the things I enjoy the most, being part of the development and making the car better and better and trying new things. And it’s been a lot of fun.
“It’s tough sometimes, because Europeans especially, they go ‘this is the way’, and I’m like ‘no, that’s not the way, we need to try something else because it is not working.’ I don’t mind butting heads a little bit, as long as we get the job done.”
Montoya capped off by throwing a little shade at Monza’s track limits, comparing it to the North American venues he has been racing at in IMSA over the past few years.
“Actually, last week was the first time I had driven here outside of Formula One (laughs). So I would say it’s a little slower and a little different, put it that way. Track’s changed a lot, a lot more bumpy than it used to be.”
“As usual, the track seems to be getting wider and wider with kerbs everywhere. When you come from America, and the last few years I have been racing a lot in America, the track limit is really the corner exit, a small kerb, and then there’s grass.”
“Here, they put a kerb, and then more kerb, and a little more kerb, and then a different type of kerb, and then another kerb, and then a sausage [kerb]. And I find it kind of… I don’t know. Let’s say I don’t agree with it.”
