2002 a success for Montoya

Despite being disappointed that he didn't win a race in 2002, Juan Pablo Montoya thinks the year was a successful one. The Williams driver finished third over all in the Driver's championship, ahead of team-mate Ralf Schumacher which the Colombian is pleased about. Schumacher has not reached as high as third in the rankings in his time in Formula One.

"I think from my personal goals this season has been a success," Montoya told ESPN. "I did better than last year. It was a shame that I didn't win a race. I am third in the championship and I can't really complain. My second year in F1 and I am in the top three. That's not bad. I am the frontrunner after Ferrari."

Juan Pablo Montoya.

Photo by Brousseau Photo.

"Third is important. It is not like winning, but Ralf has been here (at Williams) for four years and in F1 for six years and the best he has done is fourth. So third is pretty good, I gotta say. It's been a tough season, and I have had a close fight with Ralf. I have been able to have a bit of an upper hand on him."

Montoya proved the star of the show as far as qualifying was concerned, with seven pole positions: more than any other driver this season. Although he broke the record at Monza for the fastest ever qualifying lap in F1, the Colombian said the British Grand Prix at Silverstone was 'amazing'.

"The qualifying was really amazing this season," he said. "I couldn't believe it at races like at Silverstone where I thought we really looked to be in trouble, and then to pull one out of the bag out of nowhere; suddenly I just got the last little bit out of the car, put a brilliant lap together, and P1. Silverstone was pretty amazing. I used to be really rotten at Silverstone in all the small series."

While he is enjoying his time at Williams, saying he has a great relationship with the team, he thinks together they need to work faster to improve: "We need to find a way to work faster in the team. We have been very methodical this year and it really worked, but there are a lot of things that still need improvement. Just the way we work day by day through the weekend. It's the methodical way of working things in should we change a (sway) bar, a spring, weight, what is it? We need to find a way to move quicker in that."