Juan Pablo Montoya has revealed that Helmut Marko once sent him to an ‘energy healer’ to improve his mental performance during his junior career, lamenting the financial burden that the instruction imposed upon him.
Montoya never competed under Marko at Red Bull in F1, instead making his 95 Grand Prix starts for Williams and McLaren. However, the Bogota-born racer worked with the Austrian executive during the 1997 Formula 3000 International Championship, competing for his RSM Marko team alongside Craig Lowndes.
The season was a success for Montoya, who dominated team-mate Lowndes in the standings, finishing second, just 1.5 points behind eventual champion Ricardo Zonta. Interestingly, classified 21st in the standings with a single point was future Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.
However, en route to his second-place finish in the standings, Montoya was pushed into some extreme tactics by Marko. “The only person who ever sent me to get checked out because he said there was something wrong with me was Helmut Marko,” he said on the MontoyAS podcast.
“This was when it was his own team, but he didn’t send me to a psychologist — he sent me to an ‘energy healer’, because he said my speed and my stupidity couldn’t possibly coexist.
“Honestly, I remember it well, and I remember exactly how much it cost. At the time I was living in an apartment provided by his team, and they were funding my season, so when he said ‘jump’, you jumped. I went once, maybe twice, and nothing came of it. They had all these little things, including a wand with a gold tip that she used to ‘read energies’.”
Montoya was less than enamoured with Marko’s suggestion, given his difficult financial situation at the time. Asked if he had paid as much as Sergio Perez did, the seven-time Grand Prix winner revealed the extent of his monetary woes.
“No, but for the money I had back then, it felt like it,” he continued. “It was like charging Checo £600,000 instead of £6,000. I spent around $100 at the time, and I had no money at all.
“I couldn’t even afford a car. I was getting around by bus, and sometimes I didn’t even take the bus; I used rollerblades to save money. I travelled to races with the team, and now imagine spending $100 – basically a month’s groceries.”