Juan Pablo Montoya lived up to expectations this season in being the closest thing to a challenge that Michael Schumacher faced all year.

It was just a shame that Williams have yet to provide the Colombian with a car to prove whether he is fully up to the job.

There seems little doubt that Montoya has the basic speed – seven pole positions are testament to that.

Some of those laps were quite breathtaking.

His poles at Monaco and Silverstone in particular were reminiscent of the late Ayrton Senna in his ability to move the goalposts further than anyone had expected was possible.

And he did enough in some races – Canada and Silverstone to name just two – to demonstrate that once he gets a truly competitive car he will be tough to beat.

The Colombian continued to show all the skills that marked him out in his debut season - a rare gift for improvisation, an impressive turn of speed, a hard-nosed approach to racing and something close to genius at overtaking.

And he ironed out many of his weaknesses – chief among them in 2001 a lack of pace on tight, twisty tracks like Monaco and Hungary.

However, he is still not as consistent as he needs to be over an entire season.

And there remains an impetuousness about Montoya that he needs to iron out before he matures into a fully rounded competitor.

His first-lap clashes with Schumacher at Malaysia and Brazil, for example, took him out of the reckoning in races he would otherwise probably have won.

Overall, though, hopes for him to be a genuine star of the future are high indeed. He has the potential to become a truly great Grand Prix driver.