Juan Pablo Montoya a ‘fast’ but ‘lazy b*****’ in Helmut Marko McDonald’s reveal

Juan Pablo Montoya has raced just about everything and found success.

Juan Pablo Montoya’s racing career is packed with success in diverse championships, from NASCAR to Formula 1, and from IMSA to IndyCar. But not everyone was impressed by the Colombian…

In an exclusive interview with GrandPrix247, Helmut Marko had a wild story to share about the elder Montoya — as well as bout Sebastian, Juan Pablo Montoya’s son.

Helmut Marko: Juan Pablo Montoya was “a lazy bastard”

Juan Pablo Montoya got his racing start in Colombia and Mexico, where he moved from karting to regional open-wheel categories with great success. It was enough for the racer to take a risk on jumping overseas.

In 1997, Montoya joined RSM Marko in the International Formula 3000 series; the series was designed to be a cheaper alternative to Formula Two, and was replaced by GP2 in 2005.

That year, Montoya was quick. In 10 races, he won three different events and took one third, one fourth, and one fifth place. But two retirements, a disqualification, and a non-points paying finish saw the RSM Marko driver miss out on the championship by just 1.5 points.

It was impressive — but Helmut Marko has some very different memories than just the on-track action.

“Juan Pablo, he came here to Graz,” Marko recalled in an exclusive interview with GrandPrix247.

“The first thing he asked me was which of the four McDonalds in Graz was the best. So his food was unhealthy, he was a lazy bastard.

“But he was unbelievably fast.”

More on Helmut Marko and the Red Bull Academy:

 Red Bull junior team: The 12 drivers looking to rise through the ranks to F1

 Helmut Marko: The Red Bull motorsport boss with a fearsome reputation

Montoya’s speed, though, came with one big flaw, as Marko remembers, “He made so many stupid mistakes.

“We were leading the first race in England and he crashed. Similar to his son [Seb], but the son is crashing not in the front. He is crashing more in the top ten.

“So we had a hard time with Juan Pablo for quite a lot of times we didn’t even talk to each other.”

Sebastian Montoya, 19, is currently a member of the Red Bull Junior Team and is competing in the Formula 3 championship; his best finish this season was a second-place at the feature race at Spa.

But as far as Juan Pablo Montoya’s relationship with Helmut Marko went, there were no lingering hard feelings.

“Now we are good friends,” Marko said to GrandPrix247.

However, he believed Montoya could have achieved so much more.

“He wasted his talent. He could have been multiple F1 World Champion.”

Read next: Former F1 star Juan Pablo Montoya returns to NASCAR with Michael Jordan’s team