Former F1 star explains insulting Michael Schumacher - 'Would have been okay with it'

Montoya, who finished third, later blasted the German's aggressive driving by saying: "You've got to be blind or stupid not to see me!"

Schumacher ended up securing glory and would go on to win the F1 Drivers' Championship that year while he was operating at the peak of his powers on the grid.

Now, speaking on the Beyond The Grid podcast, Montoya has opened up on his decision to insult Schumacher.

“They were quicker than us. But we were quick and on fresh tyres," he said.

“To pass him, I had to go straight away. He drove me off the track but I was okay.

“I would’ve done the same thing!

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“I was okay with it. If he said in the interview ‘I drove him off the track’ then I would have been okay with it.

“But he said ‘I didn’t see him’.

“Everybody thinks and talks but I talk and think! I surprise everybody else around me!”

Schumacher dominated F1 during his first spell in the sport, winning seven titles to etch his name into the history books.

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He was a level above all of his rivals at the time but Montoya believes not enough drivers challenged the German for supremacy.

“The annoying thing with Michael? Nobody raced him," he added.

“When he came from the back it was ‘ah, Michael is coming, get out of the way’.

“That p*****d me off.

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“It was like ‘oh, it’s Michael, don’t f*** with Michael’. He had so much respect.

“My approach to racing? I was such an asshole when racing. People thought I was crazy, and it worked.

“When I threw the car in, they knew I wouldn’t get out of the way. You had two choices - you give me room, or we crash!

“The only time I talked to Michael was when I raced for BMW, and he was with Ferrari.

“We were invited to a party at the Nurburgring after the race.

“It was me, Michael and Rubens. The three of us got drunk, and that was it!”

Not much is currently known about Schumacher today.

The 56-year-old has lived his life away from the spotlight ever since a tragic skiing accident in the French Alps back in 2013.