Book Review: Juan Pablo Montoya by Christopher Hilton
Positives
Negatives
After reading recent media reports over the summer about ex-Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya (JPM) looking for a 2014 drive back in IndyCar, I couldn’t help but pull out an old book on JPM written when he was seen as the new talent in F1 to threaten Michael Schumacher at Ferrari. In the late 90’s […]
After reading recent media reports over the summer about ex-Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya (JPM) looking for a 2014 drive back in IndyCar, I couldn’t help but pull out an old book on JPM written when he was seen as the new talent in F1 to threaten Michael Schumacher at Ferrari.
In the late 90’s and early 2000’s Christopher Hilton was pumping out F1 driver books in rapid succession. His book on JPM starts with a lot of promise with well researched content and interviews on Juan’s early family life in Colombia, his junior racing career, testing for Williams and CART success up to the first 115 pages but if you’re an F1 fan, the book suddenly falls off a cliff when covering his 2001 and 2002 seasons for Williams.
Written in 2003, it isn’t able to talk about his move to McLaren, ‘tennis injury’ exit from F1 and move to NASCAR. Which is a shame, because it would be good read.
The book opens with Hilton reflecting on JPM’s aggressive feisty take no prisoners attitude on the race track and his development from early days in Colombia, racing Formula 3 and Formula 3000 in Europe, maturing in the US and back to Europe for Formula 1. There are lots of interview quotes from Mo Nunn his CART race engineer, Paul Stewart, Jonny Kane (Formula Vauxhall teammate) and Helmet Marko. There are 2 chapters dedicated to his CART seasons at Ganassi.
Hilton’s writing style is very conversational and informal – a lot of Montoya’s races are summed up in short paragraph snippets. The photography is a mix of stock LAT and Getty images with independents providing JPM’s junior racing photos. If you’re are looking for lots of Montoya Williams action you will be disappointed – even his maiden win in Imola is only one short paragraph with 2 photos.
Christopher Hilton’s book is somewhat a half glass full – a little like JPM himself.
Wow factor or money shot: Photo finish at Michigan in 2000 to beat Michael Andretti;
Suitable for: JPM and Indycar fans
