Ahead of the Formula 2 weekend at Silvertsone, Sebastian Montoya spoke to a number of media outlets, including Pit Debrief. He spoke on the weekend ahead, at a historic circuit like Silverstone, as well as reflecting on his rookie season of F2.
In not only his first season of F2, but his first season with Prema Racing, Montoya sits P8 in the standings at the midpoint of the season. The F2 weekend at Silverstone has the potential to aid him in turning his position in the standings around.
Racing at Silverstone
Silverstone is a historic circuit set in Silverstone, UK, with a vast history throughout the Formula 1 calendar. With an old, yet high speed circuit like Silverstone, comes challenge and the need for perfection. Although this is Montoya’s first season of F2, the Colombian has raced around Silverstone in other series.
Montoya mentions that for himself, the largest challenge Silverstone hosts, is the need the perfectly place the car. It is easy for a tyre to slip off the track, and being even slightly off line can affect your entire lap, or potentially race.
The Silverstone circuit is rather wide, meaning there are many options of racing lines to take. Despite this, while hard on the limit, mistakes are easily made. This makes perfection and control crucial to your lap.
“Yeah, I’d say Silverstone is probably one of the biggest challenges is the fact that it has so many corners. It’s quite an old track as well so it’s really easy to put a tyre off for example. It’s a track where it’s really high speed but you also have to position the car in the right places and being offline even half a metre makes quite a big difference on the grip that you feel as a driver.
“So that for me is probably the biggest challenge about Silverstone. It’s so wide, it’s so big and there’s so many different lines that you could do. Trying to learn it is quite hard and then also when you’re pushing so hard on the limit, any small mistake that you make, it affects the lap time quite greatly.
“So yeah, I think the high speed complex and the nature of the circuit being so fast and wide is really easy to get offline and can make a big difference in the lap time.”
The challenges of Silverstone
Despite Silverstone being part of the F2 calendar for years, and while F1 is seeing a compound change, F2 will remain with the same tyre allocation as last year. Tyre management plays a key part in the Formula 2 races around Silverstone, much like other categories and circuits.
Montoya acknowledges that knowing you will be racing on a hard tyre, helps a driver to mentally prepare their tyre management.
“Yeah, I think Josh summed it up quite well. But obviously, after the tyre management’s made a big difference in the championship this year and being able to manage them, it puts you in a better position towards the end of the race. I think, obviously, knowing that it’s so hard on the tyres as a driver, you kind of prepare for that mentally.“
Preparation for the challenge
Montoya’s strategy for his rookie season, has been to use the Sprint Races to gain understanding and knowledge for the Feature Races. This helps him find extra pace, and create a plan of action. Finding an understanding of the car’s performance and the tyres’ limits, creates a pathway for the Feature Races.
The use of the simulators, in conjunction with data and engineer advisory, forms understanding before arriving at the circuit.
“And also, you work on that on the sim, you work with the engineers, looking at data from previous years to understand exactly what you need to do. As a rookie, I’ve used a lot of Sprint Races to help me kind of make a step forward for the Feature Races to find a bit more pace, understand what I have to do. Because you start the Sprint Race and you’re adapting for the first 10, 15 laps, however long the first part of the race is.
“And you kind of have to understand what the car is doing, what the tyres are doing, and then how you can create a compromise to create the fastest lap time you can every lap, saving the most amount of energy in the tyres. So I think the biggest thing is trying to learn that. And obviously, with the double step this weekend, not just one but two steps, it’s going to be even more crucial to make sure the option lasts as much as it needs to last, and maximise the speed on both.”
Preparation for the unpredictable British weather
In response to a question asked by Pit Debrief, Montoya commented on the unpredictable conditions that the UK hosts. The Colombian driver has experience in the UK, as well as with its weather. In both 2023 and 2024, Montoya faced tough conditions, that saw him taken out of races.
Racing with a historic team like Prema brings the reassurance that the team knows how to handle the weather conditions. Montoya holds great confidence in their ability to lead and guide him to good results. In saying this, he also understands he will need to perform.
“Yeah, I have a bit of experience here in the UK. For the past two years that I’ve been here, the weather has been quite up and down. In ’23, I was leading the Sprint Race, and in changing conditions, I got taken out.
“Last year, in changing conditions, in the Feature, I got taken out as well, and the Sprint got delayed due to the rain showers. So nothing new there from that side. But obviously, as a driver, it’s your job to prepare the best you can for both conditions. Know and understand the racing line for both wet and dry.
“Obviously, the team has a lot of experience. Prema, especially, they’re one of the best teams historically in the junior formula category.
“So I have a lot of confidence in them and knowing that the car is going to be in a good window. And then from my side, I just need to do the best job I can, and the engineers obviously help me to prepare for any occasion that can happen in any scenario that we can be exposed to.”
The first half of his rookie Formula 2 season
The F2 Championship is regularly a competitive series, although 2025 has proven to Montoya just how tough it can be. He believes that so long as you have a strong base to build off of, you can continue to improve.
Maximising every track has proven tricky for some, although Montoya believes this is one of his and Prema’s strengths. The first half of the season has been incredibly competitive. This means the F2 weekend in Silverstone will be Montoya’s chance to climb the standings.
“Yeah, like I said at the beginning of the season, F2 is a very difficult championship and you have to make sure you have a good base and you have to kind of build a good base and then from there build up. Obviously, every race weekend is different. It’s a new challenge.
“So making sure that you’re able to maximise the speed in every track is quite difficult. And I think that’s something that we’re doing quite well. The team’s doing an amazing job to put the car in the right window.
“It’s been very competitive. So obviously, my job is to be as well prepared as I can be for every race weekend. And obviously, with more experience I get, the better I feel doing that, the more confidence I have in myself and my driving to be able to maximise the car.
The remainder of the 2025 F2 season
While incredibly grateful for the first half of his season, Montoya looks forward to continuing with the momentum and improvement. What both himself and Prema are doing has been working so far, so he plans to continue on this path.
The team and people around Montoya are key to the push he has needed. His focus for the remainder of the season is to continually improve.
“Honestly, for the next half of the season, I think just looking back, I’m extremely grateful for the team and the people I have around me that have been pushing me to where I am right now. And I think just keep doing what we’re doing, the championship’s so long. And we’ve done a really good job recently and we know where we can improve.
“So we’ll just focus on that and keep working.”
Working with the historical feeder series team that is Prema Racing
With upwards of 40 years of history in motorsport, Prema Racing is a well-known, and well performing name. Team Principal Rene Rosin holds strong passion for the racing world, and aims to win – much like many others.
Rosin boosts his team, and motivates them to continue working and improving, and this is something Montoya admires. The team as a whole began preparations for this season since last November, proving their dedication and pride for the team.
The 2024 season in Formula 2 was less than ideal for Prema, so this season aims to be a redemption. Montoya acknowledges the team’s awareness of their strengths and weaknesses, and their ability to improve on them.
“Yeah, starting with Rene, I think he’s very passionate about racing and he’s very passionate about winning. Not just racing but winning, and he brings the attitude of just keep working and just get better. There’s always a way to win and you just need to find that, and that’s what Rene brings to the table. He’s very good, he’s very motivating as well, and he’s very hard.
“At the end of the day, he wants results and as a driver you can’t blame him. And then from the team side, honestly, we’ve started preparing since last year, more or less in November, and it’s just been non-stop since then. They knew that last year was a difficult season for them, and they were very honest about it.“
The highs and lows
The first few races of the 2025 F2 season proved rather challenging, until they arrived back in Europe. This is where things began to look up. The triple header saw strong and promising results, with the goal now focused on continuous improvement.
Prema is aware of not only their strengths, but also of how to improve on them. Both his and Prema’s goal is to be winning, so while they keep improving, they are moving closer towards this goal.
“They know their weak points, they knew their weak points, and they just focus on that. They focus every time to just keep improving and their strong points, find a way to adapt them and make them even better. And yeah, I would say that the first two, three races of the season was a bit harder, but then when we got back to Europe, we finally got into our stride and it’s been very positive.
“Last weekend was very strong, the triple header was also really strong, even Jeddah, we were very competitive. So we’re just working towards the goal, which is winning, and obviously every time we’re getting a little bit closer, and that’s basically our goal. We just want to keep working, we want to keep finding ways to get better, and the results will come.
“As Joshua said before, the results you can’t really control, but you can control the situation that you put yourself in. And we’re just working to put ourselves in the best situation we can, week in and week out.”
