“I think a lot of Italians really liked me” – Juan Pablo Montoya takes a dream ride in ‘rival’ Ferrari at Mugello

“I think a lot of Italians really liked me” – Juan Pablo Montoya took Felipe Massa’s almost title-winning F2008 for a stroll around the team’s home-track Mugello.

Juan Pablo Montoya was always a nemesis of Ferrari, driving for two of their traditional rivals McLaren and Williams. He never won a world title but gave ample trouble to Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barichello. So it came as a shock when pictures of him driving a Ferrari around Mugello surfaced.

As it turned out, he was invited by his World Endurance Championship teammate to take the dream ride. The car in question had lost out to Lewis Hamilton of McLaren after Timo Glock allegedly let him pass for the championship win.

“My team-mate this year, Henrik Hedman, invited us to drive the car and it’s been really cool. It’s been an amazing experience.

“It’s a car we always competed against in F1. And it’s strange to be able to come here and drive an F1 car at Mugello. It doesn’t get a lot better than this.

“You had to beat them every week, you know what I mean? Especially if you came to Italy, the place you always want to beat them [at] and we were always very good at Monza, so it was always very special.

“It was interesting because by being Colombian and the Latino thing, I think a lot of Italians really liked me. So I think it was a lot of mixed feelings.

“But Ferrari always has so much tradition and everything, and to be able after all these years to actually get in one and do some laps was really nice.”

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