# McLaren signs Montoya for '05



## Josh (PA) (Jan 21, 2002)

Didn't see this posted yet.

http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_story.asp?id=60849


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## F1Crazy (Dec 11, 2002)

I kind of expected him to make that switch but didn't think that it will be announced that early. It's sad to see him go but at least he went to McLaren, the team I always liked since Senna days.

The big question is who will drive for Williams in 2005? There will be a lot of guys lining up next year but my bet is it's going to be Mark Webber.


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## PhilH (Jun 7, 2002)

That sucks. I had little hope of him doing much in F1 after his first year in the series, when he kept making stupid mistakes. However, at this point I think he's one of the few drivers who can challenge Michael Schumacher.


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## Plaz (Dec 19, 2001)

I wonder what, if any ramifications this has for the '04 season?


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## PhilH (Jun 7, 2002)

I was wondering the same thing.

I don't think it will matter much for 2004. He would probably even follow team orders (which are supposed to be banned  ) just to keep up his reputation.


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## Pvt. Joker (Dec 20, 2001)

Plaz said:


> I wonder what, if any ramifications this has for the '04 season?


If I were Frank Williams, I'n not sure I would want him driving for me in 2004.


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## F1Crazy (Dec 11, 2002)

Plaz said:


> I wonder what, if any ramifications this has for the '04 season?


It means that he won't take such a big role in car development in later stages of the season and this should give Ralf an upper hand.


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## The HACK (Dec 19, 2001)

F1Crazy said:


> I kind of expected him to make that switch but didn't think that it will be announced that early. It's sad to see him go but at least he went to McLaren, the team I always liked since Senna days.
> 
> The big question is who will drive for Williams in 2005? There will be a lot of guys lining up next year but my bet is it's going to be Mark Webber.


Jenson Button. Technically he is still under contract for Williams.


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## Kaz (Dec 21, 2001)

The HACK said:


> Jenson Button. Technically he is still under contract for Williams.


What about Marc Gene?


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## KU Ned (Apr 23, 2003)

*Officially a Mclaren fan starting in 2005*

I guess I will have to trade in my blue and white for silver and black in 2005. JPM and Kimi are by far my favorite drivers. Williams kept the wrong driver and will fall off with JPM's departure. Actally, I can't see them doing very well next year if JPM is allowed to drive. You would have to think that they would cut his testing days in favor of more days for Ralf and the test drivers. Why would Sir Frank let him gain any further information from the car?

Really a sad day for Williams/BMW.


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## PhilH (Jun 7, 2002)

I tried rooting for Kimi in the last race of the season with not much success. Rooting for Mercedes just doesn't come naturally to me.


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## ayn (Dec 19, 2001)

so what about DC? I've always liked him although he doesn't win very many races... he is very consistent and drives really clean... shots of his gf is one of the reasons i love F1 so much... haah..


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## Plaz (Dec 19, 2001)

F1Crazy said:


> The big question is who will drive for Williams in 2005?


Raffi's looking for a job... :rofl:


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## KU Ned (Apr 23, 2003)

PhilH said:


> I tried rooting for Kimi in the last race of the season with not much success. Rooting for Mercedes just doesn't come naturally to me.


It doesn't come naturally for me either. I am the president of the Kansas City BMW Club and have attended the BMW Corral at the USGP the past three years. I usually watch F1 races with my brother and dad at one of our houses. My dad has three Mercedes including a C32 AMG (love to drive on the track!). Mercedes has always been my 2nd favorite team but loyalties to BMW will really make it hard to pull for the three pointed star. I guess I have to choose between rooting for drivers of rooting for a team. I like JPM and Kimi's style of driving enough to pull for them over a BMW powered Williams team.


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## PhilH (Jun 7, 2002)

I always liked McLaren, especially back when they had Honda power and Ayrton Senna driving for them. Too bad Mercedes had to go and ruin it.


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## The HACK (Dec 19, 2001)

Kaz said:


> What about Marc Gene?


Remains to be seen...What I like about Jenson is that he's already had experience racing with Williams and during that one year when he was driving for the team, he seems to out qualify Ralf on a very consistent basis. Only reason Jenson has languished is that he kept getting passed around to bad teams. When Renault finally got their aero package sorted out he got shipped off to Honda. :thumbdwn:

Otherwise, put him in a competitive car and he may even win a few races. Maybe Williams will sign up Montoya's younger brother, who's a rising star in Formula BMW right now.


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## Mr. E (Dec 19, 2001)

F1Crazy said:


> The big question is who will drive for Williams in 2005? There will be a lot of guys lining up next year but my bet is it's going to be Mark Webber.


Bring on Townsend Bell! :stickpoke

Well, it *would* sorta be cool to have an American driving for my favorite team. :thumbup:


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## Josh (PA) (Jan 21, 2002)

Plaz said:


> I wonder what, if any ramifications this has for the '04 season?


At the bottom of the article it talks about JPM holding out in hopes of being let out of his contract a year early. No comments from Williams, but could turning into an ugly side show. :dunno:


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## elbert (Mar 28, 2002)

F1Crazy said:


> The big question is who will drive for Williams in 2005?


Maybe that Ho-Pin Tung guy


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## Elwood (Dec 20, 2002)

YEA! I might actually root for Williams again...




....nah still a Tifosi


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## richard (Apr 3, 2002)

I have to disagree with the previous post. With the current stupid aero rules, slipstreaming has become a thing of the past and just about the only way to pass is to force you way though, like JPM does. Without guys like him we'd have endless parades like in Montreal last year.


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## racerdave (Sep 15, 2003)

:thumbup:

What Richard said. 

So you liked the violin smiley, huh Elwood? 

And when Monty pulls the passing attempts, he gives room for the other guy. That's the key. If the other dolts think they have the right to all the track when someone is along side -- cough, Ralf, cough, Ruebens -- and decide to drive into Monty, well, then that is their own [email protected] fault. :nono:

Michael seemed to be able to race hard and fair with Monty in the chicane at Monza this year -- unlike the crap he pulls on Trulli and Alonso -- and remember Hockenheim from 2002 when Monty and Raikonnen raced side-by-side for a number of corners successfully because each driver gave the other one half the track -- and then raced like hell on their half. There was no wheel banging, just great racing.

Montoya is a racer. :thumbup:

Apparently you prefer processional drones like Richard mentions.

To each his own! :thumbup:


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## Elwood (Dec 20, 2002)

racerdave said:


> :thumbup:
> 
> What Richard said.
> 
> So you liked the violin smiley, huh Elwood?


hehe yea I need that one on a few other forums. 

There's no doubt Monty's a fast driver, he just needs to watch where he's going more often or he might break something. :AF330i:


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## SteveT (Dec 22, 2001)

Elwood said:


> hehe yea I need that one on a few other forums.
> 
> There's no doubt Monty's a fast driver, he just needs to watch where he's going more often or he might break something. :AF330i:


I fail to see your point on the last one. JPM watching where he's going will have little to do with a photographer who runs into the back of his head. That broke the skin, it probably hurt. A lot of us would have told the photographer what to do with his camera and some of us would have done it for him.


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## richard (Apr 3, 2002)

It seems to me you have to be an aggressive bastard to be successful in F1. Senna,Mansell, Schumacher are perfect examples. You might end up world champ like Damon did, but not without an extrordinary car. Even Prost was known to barge his way through. The gentleman days of F1 are long over. Those laps when Kimi and JPM were dicing reminded me of the good old days of Senna and Mansell.


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## F1Crazy (Dec 11, 2002)

richard said:


> It seems to me you have to be an aggressive bastard to be successful in F1. Senna,Mansell, Schumacher are perfect examples. You might end up world champ like Damon did, but not without an extrordinary car. Even Prost was known to barge his way through. The gentleman days of F1 are long over. Those laps when Kimi and JPM were dicing reminded me of the good old days of Senna and Mansell.


Once again I agree with you completely. People like Damon Hill don't win multiple championships and they usually have the dominant car when they win. I miss personality among F1 drivers and I'm not talking about the clowns like Eddie Irvine but true characters like the ones you've mentioned. I'm sad to see JV go, I like JPM the way he is and I think that Webber could be quite a character once he settles in a top team.


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## Elwood (Dec 20, 2002)

F1Crazy said:


> Once again I agree with you completely. People like Damon Hill don't win multiple championships and they usually have the dominant car when they win. I miss personality among F1 drivers and I'm not talking about the clowns like Eddie Irvine but true characters like the ones you've mentioned. I'm sad to see JV go, I like JPM the way he is and I think that Webber could be quite a character once he settles in a top team.


Damon Hill passing Shumi in the Arrows now that was classic.

As for Monty running into the camera man, I guess we'll all defend what we WANT to believe. Me that I totally dislike Monty and ya'll that love him. It's pointless to discuss.


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## racerdave (Sep 15, 2003)

Elwood said:


> As for Monty running into the camera man, I guess we'll all defend what we WANT to believe. Me that I totally dislike Monty and ya'll that love him. It's pointless to discuss.


Yeah? :wahwah:  :loco: :neener:

It may be pointless but it is kinda fun. :guitar: :supdude: :soapbox:

:bustingup:

:thumbup:

(sorry, I'm overtired and got a little smiley happy)


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## SteveT (Dec 22, 2001)

Elwood said:


> As for Monty running into the camera man, I guess we'll all defend what we WANT to believe. Me that I totally dislike Monty and ya'll that love him. It's pointless to discuss.


Hmm, defend what we want to believe? I guess Juan must have walking backwards...ok. If you want to see it that way, OK I understand.


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## richard (Apr 3, 2002)

I don't see the big deal concerning JPM's tirade toward a camera man. If I had those guys sticking their cameras in my face wherever I went I'd probably be yelling at them even without one hitting me in the head. One of the funnier tirades was Senna's when Irvine re-passed him after being lapped.


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## F1Crazy (Dec 11, 2002)

Mark Webber admits that Frank Williams and Tony Purnell (Jaguar boss) already started talking about his possible transfer to Williams. Webber must really be high on Frank's list.

In the light of this I wouldn't be surprised if there was a change even before next season with Montoya going to McLaren, Webber to Williams and Coulthard to Jaguar. More surprising things happened in Formula 1...


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

Or Williams could wait until the season starts to release Montoya, and then put a real wrench in McLaren's plans. 

Have Mark Webber in the wings to move up after say one or two races.


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## racerdave (Sep 15, 2003)

F1Crazy said:


> In the light of this I wouldn't be surprised if there was a change even before next season with Montoya going to McLaren, Webber to Williams and Coulthard to Jaguar. More surprising things happened in Formula 1...


As loony as that sounds... that's what I was thinking too!


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## SteveT (Dec 22, 2001)

Pinecone said:


> Or Williams could wait until the season starts to release Montoya, and then put a real wrench in McLaren's plans.
> 
> Have Mark Webber in the wings to move up after say one or two races.


If Williams wanted to be nasty they could just tell Montoya that he's going to sit out. They could bring in someone who would come cheap (do the intials JV mean anything) and move on. If Williams released Montoya after the season started, McLaren would just let Couthard go or have him test and put Montoya in their car.

The problem with Webber is the Flavio Briatore is his agent and he's not so easy to deal with. There's been talk about Webber for a while, but it doesn't sound like there was any real action.


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## racerdave (Sep 15, 2003)

Hmm... not so sure about the "no real action."

http://www.autosport.com/newsitem.asp?id=25350&s=5

I still think the 3-way trade could make a scary amount of sense: 1) McLaren would get Montoya for 2004, 2) Williams would get Webber, presumably for a multi-year deal, and 3) Jaguar would get Coulthard for a multi-year deal. I don't see any real negatives for any of the parties, not even for Coulthard, because he was going to be job hunting after 2004 anyway. Plus, it would give Jag 1) a Scot, 2) someone who is an experienced winner and 3) somone with car-development experience and skill. Plus, he might even end up with fellow McLaren tester Alex Wurz.

Regardless... it'll be fun to see what happens.


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## SteveT (Dec 22, 2001)

Agreed, these things are fun to speculate on. There's no racing to follow now anyway. I was hoping the Montoya rumors were just that.

It was just recently that I saw Mark Webber on one of the TV shows saying that, while he was very flattered by the suggestion of Williams interest, there had been absolutely no contact and then of course all the contract stuff. Could be Williams is asking questions now, as they should be.


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