Sebastián Montoya: My Ultimate Driver

Campos Racing’s Sebastián Montoya is the latest driver on the 2024 grid to take on the task of creating the ultimate racing driver.

It comes as no surprise that the Colombian points to his father as a source of inspiration, and there are a few of his rivals in there too for good measure. Here is what he came up with.

INTELLIGENCE

“Probably Niki Lauda. He was always smart wasn’t he. I was going to pick a modern driver, but I think he’s just one of those old-school drivers focused on trying to improve using the maximum brain capacity, so I think for intelligence it has to be Niki for sure.”

DRIVING IN THE WET

“It’s Ayrton Senna. I remember in 2019 I went to McLaren, and I got a tour there and they had the Donington car, the Lap of the Gods. That was cool.”

QUALIFYING

“Let me think… Probably Lewis Hamilton. He’s had the most Pole Positions for a reason. He puts a good lap together always, especially in Q3. I feel that in Q1 and Q2, he’s just behind his teammate and in Q3, he just switches it on.”

CORNERING

“Max Verstappen. Actually, if you’re talking about going to fully send it, I’d probably pick my dad. He has a good thing where his mentality going into a Qualifying lap was, if the car isn’t moving around a lot, you’re not going fast enough. So, I’d have to pick my dad for that one.”

TYRE MANAGEMENT

“Checo Perez. He’s been pretty good, always one of the drivers that takes care of the tyres the right way.”

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BRAVERY

“Max. He goes above and beyond for that.”

SMOOTH OR AGGRESSIVE

“Smooth, nowadays it’s smooth. The tyres are very sensitive to load, so you can lean on them but can’t be really aggressive with the load, especially with the heavier cars. Nowadays, the cars are a lot heavier than when my dad raced. Also, in F2 and F3, every time you step up, you really need to pay attention to steering inputs, with a bit more finesse.”

OVERTAKING

“Overtaking, I’d probably say Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull days. Those big divebombs he did, those were good. Usually, they come if the driver ahead exits the corner and doesn’t get the exit perfect, but you get a good one and are still a bit behind. You’re sat behind thinking and hoping that they don’t move or anything like that in the braking zone. Just so in that moment they brake, you can pounce by reacting to them braking, just going as late as possible. It’s more about trying to make the corner rather than actually trying to out-brake the guy.”

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ANYTHING ELSE?

“I would say the success I would like it to be like Hamilton and Michael Schumacher. Influence, I’d like them to be as big as Senna. A combination of those guys would probably be perfect.”