He was hailed the Next Senna. Pundits predicted he will make history, beat his experienced teammate, what not. Eight races into his first season, Juan Pablo Montoya has shown flashes of brilliance but failed to live up to the hype. Is that his fault? The media's? Roger Horton reviews Montoya's first half-season in Formula One, talks to those who know him best, and compares his results to Ralf Schumacher's previous rookie teammates at Williams

"The problem as I see it," said Williams technical director Patrick Head after qualifying at Monaco, "is that the press are all looking at Juan Pablo as the new Messiah, the man who is going to take it to Michael Schumacher all the time. Certainly Juan Pablo has that sort of skill level, there is no doubt about it, but I think it is putting an expectation level on him in his first year that is very hard to live up to."

Patrick Head is one of the most experienced and down to earth men in motor racing, so his summation of Juan Pablo Montoya's first seven qualifying sessions (and six races) in F1 carried a lot of weight. But since he spoke those words at Monaco, Montoya has raced twice more and crashed on both occasions, adding fuel to a fire that was already smouldering away. Just how good is the Colombian, and just how much is he a victim of an over zealous media campaign that has boosted expectations far beyond what any rookie could reasonably be expected to deliver in his first year?

In his eight races so far, Montoya has managed to finish just once, and that was in Spain - where he made it to the chequered flag in second place. He has had three mechanical breakdowns, crashed three times, and was the innocent victim of another driver's actions on one other occasion.

Without a doubt, he is still most remembered for his overtaking move on Michael Schumacher in Brazil, where he took the lead after a brief safety car period and led the race until he was punted off by the Arrows of Jos Verstappen.

Forget about that pass being the product of his BMW engine's fearsome power, aiding Montoya as he drafted into the lead past a startled Michael Schumacher. It was all about the Colombian's freakish ability to control a racing car on cold tyres, and this allowed him to go deeper into the corner under braking than Michael thought possible. Once alongside, he was still thinking enough to squeeze Schumacher to the outside of the track, killing any possibility that the German might have had to fight back through the next right-hander, where Schumacher was on the inside line.

Brazil showed Montoya's natural racing instincts. In Austria, they were on show once again when he defended his lead and once more found himself wheel to wheel with Schumacher's Ferrari. Logically, he defended his position too vigorously in Austria, and the price he paid for it was the lead and some six places in the race's standings. But his racing pride does not allow another driver to overtake him around the outside in such a manner, and one should never underestimate the role that pride plays in the make up of a top class racing driver. The driver that stops competing for every yard of tarmac, has either won so much that he can afford to give it away, or the fire in his belly no longer burns. Clearly neither is the case with Juan Pablo Montoya.

Ironically, Montoya's best-placed finish came at a race where he qualified the worst - a second place finish in Spain after qualifying twelfth - and it has been his poor qualifying record against his teammate Ralf Schumacher that has raised most questions in the paddock. When Montoya lines up for a qualifying lap, everyone pays attention; there is a feeling that a special driver is about to unleash something that will shake up the established order. A case of the media believing its own hype perhaps? So when he ends the session behind his teammate, as he has for seven out of his eight races, it's a case of another let down, but whose fault is it, his or the media's?

"I don't think Juan Pablo would agree with me, but fifty percent of his problems, or even a bit more, are just lack of Formula One experience," Head said recently. "I mean, Ralf is in his fifth year in Formula One and his fourth season of running on grooved tyres, and to expect Juan Pablo to come in and be as astute as Ralf in making judgements about the tyres and the setup is just being unrealistic."

This is undoubtedly true, but to what extent has Montoya been guilty of adding unnecessarily to his troubles? In Malaysia he was sidelined throughout most of Friday's two practice sessions with mechanical problems, and only got out on the track very late in the day. Yet on the first flying lap he lost control and damaged his car, making a bad session even worse.

"I had only done three laps, I was pushing a bit hard, and actually I was going a bit too fast," Montoya explained afterwards. Was this a mistake that should be simply shrugged off and forgotten, or was it the result of a basic lack of brainpower that will dog his career forever?

His team boss Frank Williams has no doubt as to the challenge facing his new driver and just who he is being measured against. "Juan Pablo has recognized it's hard here, it's just so tough," Said Williams in Canada. "He has a lot of work to do, a lot of thinking, planning, he has try harder and think more and more. Michael Schumacher is a bloody terrorist. It's all about winning for him, what can he do to make himself fitter, what can he do to make himself better? He knows his car better because he is on the phone to the factory every second day to get them to send him all the telemetry, he never stops, he is one hell of an opponent."

So even his team boss, who honoured his verbal promise to bring Montoya back from CART and dumped Jenson Button to make room for him, has an inferred expectation that his new driver is competing against Michael Schumacher, the acknowledged best driver in F1 today.

"I think with Juan Pablo, you have to remember that in his first year of CART racing he won everything, and if his car had not been unreliable in his second year he would have won two years in a row," Patrick Head adds. "He doesn't come here saying, 'OK, I will spend the first year learning' - his expectation is that he wants to be on the front row and pole at every race he goes to and that's the expectation he puts on himself."

Montoya is the third F1 rookie in three years, who has joined Williams and so lined up against Ralf Schumacher in their debut year. The qualifying statistics below make interesting reading, as well as producing the odd surprise. Who would have thought, for instance, that the much-maligned Alex Zanardi would actually be the closest driver to Ralf both in terms of outright speed and qualifying positions over the first eight races of the season? He also managed to outqualify Ralf on three occasions in his first eight attempts. Jenson Button managed to do this twice. Montoya just once.

Qualifying   |  2001 Season  |  2000 Season  |  1999 Season 
-------------|---------------|---------------|--------------
             |   JPM    RS   |    JB    RS   |    AZ    RS  
Round 1:     |    11     5   |    21     3   |    15     8  
Round 2:     |     6     3   |     9    11   |    17    11  
Round 3:     |     4     2   |    17     5   |    10     9  
Round 4:     |     7     3   |     6     7   |    11    16  
Round 5:     |    12     5   |    11     5   |    17    10  
Round 6:     |     2     3   |    11     5   |    12    13  
Round 7:     |     7     5   |    14     9   |    15    16  
Round 8:     |    10     2   |    18    12   |    14     8  
-------------|---------------|---------------|--------------
Ave Qual pos |    7.3   3.5  |   13.3   7.1  |   13.8  11.3 
-------------|---------------|---------------|--------------
WC Points    |     6    22   |     3    12   |     0    19  
-------------|---------------|---------------|--------------
Qual Diff    |   > 0.587 >   |   > 0.653 >   |   > 0.328 >  

All stats for the first 8 races of each season

Those who know Montoya well speak of his ability to thrive on hardship. Nothing in his life has ever come easily to him; everything has had to be worked for. Now he once again faces another challenge - to secure his place in his F1 team that is so patently going to be winning a bunch of races over the coming years. Juan Pablo Montoya certainly has the talent to rise to the very top and fulfil his undoubted promise. The only unanswered question is whether he can channel that ability and make it work for him at Williams over the remainder of the season.