juan is gone

[botsquad]

While winning the Indy 500 is an impressive achievement one must remember that this is not the race it once was. The opposition was really not up to much in the overall, global scheme of things. The Indy racing League field, whether Tony George and his people like it or not, are not good enough to make it in CART-level competition, just as the average CART driver would be out of his depth in Formula 1. It is not a point that can be argued, it is a reality.

The victory in Milwaukee was another thing. The Toyota is beginning to get good but to win with the engine was still an achievement and Montoya should be recognised for that. Maybe he will go on to win the CART title this year, maybe he will not, but one way or the other it is hard to imagine that Toyota North America and Target will want to let him go to Williams next year that easily.

They have spent 14 months building Montoya into a star so that he can help them sell cars and all the stuff that they sell in Target stores across the United States. Do they really want to let him go next year and give away the asset they have been building? It might make sense for Chip Ganassi but he may not be the master of his own destiny because he has to be nice to both Target and Toyota because they are both giving him lots of money.

[KC]

One of the wildcard entries in the Montoya sweepstakes is Toyota. Will they be ready and willing to see Montoya go to F1? He is the only driver capable of giving them a win so far. He will most likely continue as the Toyota gets better reliability and more flexible power. Will they up the ante to keep him in CART for another season? I would not be surprised.

Also, why would Montoya go to F1 to drive a Williams. Sure they are becoming more competitive, but Ferrari and McLaren keep moving the goal posts of competitiveness to higher levels and the Williams effort is still behind the curve. From Montoya's point of view it would be foolish to leave the best team in CART to go and drive for possibly the third, fourth or fifth best team in F1. If a seat were to open at McLaren for him I would imagine he would be gone immediately as would any driver. Ferrari is a no-go as long as Schumacher is present because he won't allow a competitve teammate. No other team has the short term ability to remain at the top of the game like McLaren or Ferrari and racing careers are short enough to be looking to take any ride in F1. Montoya has stated that he will finish his contract with Ganassi for 2001, but this also may be the politically correct words to assure sponsors.

If I were Montoya, I would hold out in CART and look to see if Hakkinen is considering retirement. His results of late are fairly uninspiring and he has not responded well to his insurgent teammate. Also, I would not go to F1 cheap. He should learn the Zanardi lesson well, if you do go, go for the most money. Because if somehow it does not work out, which I cannot imagine for Montoya, at least he will be paid handsomely. We all know how Sir Frank is with his money.

[Jay]

Juan should leave for F1 as soon as he can. He has done it all in America, there is nothing else to prove so why should he continue to risk his life in a series that means little to him compared to the egos in Europe.

By staying with Cart he risks completely adapting to the Cart driving style, which is further from the F1 driving style.

Like it or not for Juan, Williams is the best F1 team he can sign with. None of the other teams are willing to consider him. There is another free agent this year that has a much better resume.

And why should he be ashamed about going to Williams? They are getting better all of the time, and with BMW by their side Ralf will probably be winning races next year. Juan might even win one too.

Williams is by far his bet for the future.

[KC]

I doubt that Williams will be able to make the jump up to the same level as McLaren or Ferrari in the near future. They have done well in just one year, but we all said the same thing about Jordan when anticipating this year. F1 has proven to be the most difficult series to make serious advances in, and that's what it will take to catch up to, not surpass, the two big ones.

[fatbloke]

I don't think that Williams can be compared to Jordan - they have always been a top team - been there, seen it, done it, know what they're doing. They have had a poor couple of years due to a) the loss of Ayrton & the trial b) loss of Renault c) loss of Adrian Newey d) silly touring car and sportscar distractions e) several other factors - it's no coincidence that the first year after all those things have been resolved, they're back on it.

Pretty much the same thing happened at McLaren when they lost Honda and then Senna left - took many years for them to pick up the baton. Williams are back on the up already. Can't wait to see how Montoya goes against Ralfy next year

[floid2000]

Who among us doesn't believe that Chip can find another championship calibre driver? He has got to be the best "scout" of late. 4 championships in 4 years (3 of wich were with "rookies" .
There are lots of Juans out there and Chip knows them all. Adios JPM

[Liz]

Goodbye JPM, hello Bruno. Forward the Brazilians!

[bobdrummond]

I hope Juan does go to F1, but not with Williams. After what they did to Zanardi, they don't deserve him. My dream team would be Montoya and McNish in a TTE Toyota that rips all before it.
If Montoya does join Williams, I'd say he'll make as good an impression as Villeneuve did, perhaps even better. Juans incredible ability to learn tracks and to be very fast on cold tyres will stand him in good stead in F1.
Okay then, one year at Williams in 2001, then off to Toyota or Jordan/Honda for 2002. Where he'll take the No. 1, of course!
Bigger question, what star will Ganassi replace Juan with? Please not Button. Please.

[Sharky]

Its true wath Jay says. There's no use in Juan staying another year in CART. Like Gerhard Berger said at the begining of this year "the only new thing he can learn is how to loose" and now with his indy 500 win.

And the transfer will be made with williams. After all...Juan is under contract with Williams. But don't be so skeptical about the move! Let's not forget that he drove 8000+ (yeah thousand) miles with the 98 williams team in testing. He's no stranger to the ways an F1 car works. I will like to that the fact that ion many testing sesions he beated his teammates Jaques and Heinz and one day durin practice in magny cours he was fastestr....even over DC's mclaren.

But I don't think that Junqueira nor button will replace him.....in fact I think that his replacement will be some italian guy that answers to the name of Alessandro Leone Zanardi. Why? Well Mo Nunn contacted Alex but he said no because he was out of shape but he also said that he wanted to run in the top. Now....Nunn is a hell of an engineer but the team still doesen't have what it needs to run in the top and chip does. Now Zanardi is still very young to retire and Chip will need a driver to keep him at the top. He would be glad to see him racing his car again.....BTW....I saw Alex saying hello to all the Ganassi guys at detroit.....a signal?