{"id":470529,"date":"2025-10-03T07:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T07:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/470529\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T07:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T07:31:09","slug":"juan-pablo-montoya-explains-why-formula-1-fans-have-now-started-to-like-max-verstappen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/470529\/","title":{"rendered":"Juan Pablo Montoya explains why Formula 1 fans have now started to ‘like’ Max Verstappen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Max Verstappen has long played the role of the villain in Formula 1 since emerging onto the scene as a 17-year-old, and Juan Pablo Montoya has explained why the vast majority of fans are starting to warm to the Dutchman.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Verstappen<\/a> was tipped to go to the very top of F1 since his heroics at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, and he made it very clear that he wasn\u2019t worried about hurting anyone\u2019s feelings on his way. <\/p>\n

The ultra-competitive nature of the Dutchman is one of the reasons why he has been so successful in his single-seater career, and Jos Verstappen has previously expressed his annoyance<\/a> at how his son is portrayed by F1 fans because of it.<\/p>\n

The sentiment was echoed by Chris Harris after he took part in a promotional video with Verstappen<\/a> during the current season. <\/p>\n

The presenter was taken aback by Verstappen\u2019s demeanour, which was nothing like how the four-time world champion is illustrated in the media.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Ted Kravitz shares what he said to Max Verstappen in private after Red Bull driver boycotted Sky F1<\/a><\/p>\n

Juan Pablo Montoya believes F1 fans are warming to Max Verstappen now that he isn\u2019t dominating<\/p>\n

In a recent episode of the MontoyAS podcast, former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya<\/a> spoke about the way that the Red Bull<\/a> driver\u2019s \u201cimage\u201d has been changing over recent years, which was echoed by a recent poll that has Verstappen as the fifth most popular driver on the F1 grid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax has changed a lot,\u201d Montoya stated. \u201cWhen he was dominating, people didn\u2019t like him much. Generally, nobody likes someone who dominates. But when he was the villain, the one challenging Mercedes, or doing things like this, people really liked him. <\/p>\n

\u201cRacing outside of Formula 1 isn\u2019t very common. For many fans who can\u2019t attend a Formula 1 race, either because of the cost or because there aren\u2019t currently any races in Germany, this was a unique chance to see Max drive a car and do something different. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of that, people could even race against him, since many likely signed up just for the opportunity to share the track with Max. From that perspective, it\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montoya is referring to Verstappen\u2019s recent venture into GT3 racing<\/a> at the world-renowned Nordschleife. The 28-year-old has entered a number of races in the NLS in order to prepare for the prestigious Nurburgring 24 Hours race next year.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> George Russell hails \u2018rare\u2019 Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen feat as he weighs up Mercedes future<\/a><\/p>\n

Max Verstappen could enter the 2025 F1 title fight with a win at the Singapore Grand Prix<\/p>\n

Verstappen is currently coming off the back of consecutive wins in the 2025 F1 season, cruising to victory by a sizeable margin at Monza and Baku. <\/p>\n

Benefiting from the poor showings of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in Azerbaijan, the result saw Verstappen edge closer to the front-running McLaren duo. <\/p>\n

His deficit to Piastri at the top of the F1 standings currently sits at 69 points. <\/p>\n\nPosition<\/td>\nDrivers’ Championship<\/td>\nPointsPts<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n1<\/td>\n <\/td>\n324<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2<\/td>\n <\/td>\n299<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n3<\/td>\n <\/td>\n255<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n4<\/td>\n <\/td>\n212<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer believes Verstappen has to win in Singapore<\/a> for him to be in contention for the title at the end of the season. <\/p>\n

With there being just six rounds remaining after the race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, he needs as many points as he can get right now.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman is well aware of the risk he poses to Piastri and Norris\u2019 respective maiden titles, with Verstappen telling Red Bull exactly what they need to do<\/a> in order for him to take the fight to them in Singapore. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has long played the role of the villain in Formula 1 since emerging onto the scene…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,14656,1073,749,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-470529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-juan-pablo-montoya","12":"tag-max-verstappen","13":"tag-red-bull-racing","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115309070513130891","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}