Juan Pablo Montoya rejected Ferrari opportunity during Michael Schumacher era

Michael Schumacher, Bernie Ecclestone, Kimi Raikkonen, Juan Pablo Montoya stand ahead of the 2003 US Grand Prix — Photo: © IMAGO

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Juan Pablo Montoya rejected Ferrari opportunity during Michael Schumacher era

Here's why we never saw Montoya race in red

Originally written by Kerry Violet. This version is a translation.

Friday 8 May 2026 17:00

Former Formula 1 race winner Juan Pablo Montoya has disclosed that he was once approached about a potential move to Ferrari at the height of his F1 career.

Montoya raced in Formula 1 from 2001 through 2006, spending his time on the grid with Williams and McLaren while Ferrari dominated the sport alongside Michael Schumacher.

During that period, Schumacher captured five of his seven world championships with the Italian team, which was led by renowned technical chief Ross Brawn throughout Ferrari’s hugely successful run in the 2000s.

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The Brit followed Schumacher to Ferrari from Benetton in the late 1990s and took up an instrumental role as technical director.

He is now best known for being the mastermind behind the dream team, which consisted of he and Schumacher, as well as Jean Todt and Rory Byrne. Together, they achieved six consecutive constructors' championships and five back-to-back titles between 1999 and 2004.

But it turns out it was the German who kept Montoya from ever making a move to Ferrari.

Should Ferrari 'simplify' F1 politics?

Speaking in a recent episode of the BBC's F1 Chequered Flag Podcast after the Miami GP, Montoya said: "The crazy thing is when I was in F1, I looked at Ferrari and I never looked at it that way," referring to the allure that seems to attract so many drivers to the Italian team despite them not winning a title of any kind since 2008.

The Colombian driver-turned-pundit then revealed that Brawn had even gone as far as to extend an offer for him to switch over to Ferrari during his career, but that he had turned it down instantly for one reason.

When asked by 1996 champion Damon Hill why he never felt the pull from Ferrari, Montoya explained: "I don't know. Ross Brawn once came to me and said, ‘We would love if you ever race for us.’ And I said, ‘No, thank you.’ In hindsight, I go, ‘Oh my god, that was crazy.’

"I remember I came to the Williams meeting, I mean, after the race in Monza, and I told my engineer, [they] said, ‘How was it?’ I said, ‘Well, Ross Brown just said I should go to Ferrari.’ And [they] said, ‘What do you say?’ I said, ‘No, thank you.’ And they all looked at me like, 'Oh my god, you're crazy.'"

Montoya was then asked by commentator and co-host Harry Benjamin: "And you don't regret that?"

To which the former McLaren star replied: "No, I didn't want to have Michael as a team-mate because I didn't want to be a second-tier driver."

Though Montoya's decline of Brawn's offer appeared to shock many in F1 at the time, he is far from the only driver to admit that playing second fiddle to Schumacher offered little to no incentive to switch to the Scuderia.

Fellow former McLaren driver David Coulthard has previously spoken of sharing Montoya's opinion.

Montoya later added that the driver politics in play at Ferrari have made it hard for many stars of the sport to perform within their ranks, suggesting it was time for a change in operations.

"The hard thing, and I think it's getting a little better, is the amount of politics that are going on," the 50-year-old said.

"It's really hard to perform there when there's so many opinions and so many layers. You know what I mean? I think nowadays big companies have so many layers of opinions and sometimes [to] simplify things makes a big difference."

F1 Ferrari Michael Schumacher Juan Pablo Montoya