The Athletic.

Williams produced some formidable cars in the 1980s and 90s, yet for all its dominance in F1

during that time, it went 20 years without winning the Monaco Grand Prix.

Juan Pablo Montoya ended a drought that stretched all the way back to Kecky Rosberg in

1983 when he triumphed in the 2003 race, but as we'll hear later, Williams nearly lost this

one too in the closing laps. This was also the year that the Monaco track, as we know it today,

was born with land reclaimed

from the harbour to reprofile the final sector and create room for something resembling a proper

pit lane. And it was a race missed by Jensen Button, who crashed so heavily in practice on Saturday

that he'd been knocked out and doctors wouldn't let him take part in the rest of the weekend. So joining me, Glenn Freeman,

to look back on all of that and much more, we have Ben Anderson and Karun Chanduck.

Karun, good to have you back on board for the first time in series nine. So tell us, when you think

back to Monaco 2003, what's the first thing that comes to mind? It's got to be that middle stint from Montoya,

isn't it? Or the second stint after Ralph pitted and got out of the way. And he just went nuts.

He unleashed some incredible pace and came out. I can't remember how many seconds in front,

but he was miles ahead of Ralph. And yeah, that was the key part of the race for him.

Yeah, always decisive in Monaco, what you do around the pit stops.

Ben, you beat everyone else to the punch in volunteering for this one.

So what stands out for you?

Well, I've got a bit of a soft spot for the 2003 season generally

because it really helped re-energize my love of Formula

1 after the Ferrari dominance and particularly the mockery of 2002 where they were kind of

...