S12 E4: Brazil 2004 - Montoya's final Williams win
Bring Back V10s - Classic F1 stories
The Race Media Ltd
4.9 • 764 Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2025
⏱️ 74 minutes
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Summary
Juan Pablo Montoya and Williams brought their rollercoaster relationship to a close with a memorable victory at the 2004 season finale in Brazil, where Montoya beat his future McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in a tense battle.
Glenn Freeman is joined by Jon Noble and Ben Anderson to look back on a weekend where dominant 2004 champion Michael Schumacher was a surprising non-factor, and Montoya was able to salvage something from a tough season for Williams.
Off-track, we look at David Coulthard's bid to get a drive with Williams, and why the team was also looking at bringing his old McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen out of retirement. Plus we revisit how Eddie Jordan realised he was reaching the end of the road in F1 as a team owner.
There's plenty of F1 politics, with new rules announced for 2005 and 2006 (including the banning of V10s!), and another dispute where the entire grid seemed to be united against Ferrari.
And we couldn't possibly talk about the end of 2004 without paying homage to 'Donkey Does F1', looking at how an inflatable donkey probably became F1's first viral character!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic. |
| 0:03.0 | Not many classic partnerships get to end on a high, but when Pablo Montaure and Williams got to do just that at the end of a difficult 2004 season, |
| 0:19.7 | when he signed off with victory in the Brazilian |
| 0:22.0 | Grand Prix before heading off to McLaren. Montoya came out on top in a close run battle with |
| 0:27.4 | his future teammate, Kimmy Reikinen, while that year's dominant champion Michael Schumacher |
| 0:31.9 | was nowhere on a scrappy final weekend of the season. It was also the weekend when |
| 0:36.9 | David Calford said goodbye to |
| 0:38.5 | McLaren after nine years together. Jensen Button found out he'd be forced to stay with VAR rather |
| 0:44.8 | than move to Williams for 2005 and F1 announced short notice rule changes for 2005 and the |
| 0:51.6 | arrival of V8 engines for 2006. |
| 0:54.9 | Boo. |
| 0:55.9 | Joining me, Glenn Freeman, to look back on all of that and more, we have Ben Anderson |
| 1:00.3 | and John Noble. |
| 1:02.0 | Ben, kick things off for us. |
| 1:03.6 | When you think of Brazil 2004, what's the first thing that comes to mind? |
| 1:07.4 | I think back to being in the first year of university in Sheffield in my dingy, soon to be |
| 1:13.8 | demolished halls of residence, crowded around a really small bedroom TV, tuned into the coverage, |
| 1:21.5 | watching the race with new friends who weren't as into Formula One as I was and were kind of a |
| 1:26.6 | bit puzzled while I was giving up this time drinking with them to watch a Formula One race in Brazil. |
| 1:32.6 | Yeah, so you're trying to be the expert in the room. |
| 1:34.9 | Again. |
| 1:35.6 | Still trying. |
... |
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