Should Montoya rejoin Williams for 2005?

[esorniloc]

Now we all know that Montoya is going to McLaren for 2005, but he still hasn't moved as yet.

It now looks like Ralf is going to leave Williams, which was one of Montoya's problems at Williams.

It also looks as if the new McLaren isn't what its cracked upto being and Mercedes hasn't been able to match BMW for 4 seasons now. So why would Montoya want to race for McLaren.

I know it wouldn't be easy, but if he turned to Frank and Ron and said "look I want to stay for 05" there would be some way of doing that.

Does anyone else agree that he should stay at Williams?

[Spudgun]

I personally think he should, but it's never going to happen.

Monty has signed a contract with Ron. The deal is sealed. Even if Ron wanted to let him go (I think not), Frank would have to pay a fair sum and I think the majority here would agree that he would not do that in a million years.

[Damon]

Given the choice I think he should for sure. Unfortunately that choice isn't available to him.

[Don K]

I think it would be a bad move.

• He signed for McLaren.
  If he would try to back out, that would give him a bad name.
  And every team that would want to sign him in the future, would have to take into account the possibility that he might want to cancel his contract.
• Any McLaren sponsor which has prolonged their contract recently, would be seriously angered. Which means that any company that (in the future) might be contemplating a sponsor contract with a team that happened to have Montoya under "contract" might have second thoughts.
• At the moment Montoya is not taking part in the development of next year's Williams.
  If he changes his mind at this moment, I doubt that he will be taking part in developing next year's car, until Williams is convinced that Montoya won't change his mind again.

He mad a very clear statement by announcing his change to McLaren early.
That is good. It shows a confident sports man who makes decissions when it's needed.

No reason to spoil that image.

---

By the way:
Even if McLaren doesn't improve the car this year, they will probably be back at the top in 2005 or 2006.
They have had some difficult years, with Hakkinen (having lost the will for racing), Coulthard (being written of by many people) and Raikkonen (a little bit too young to carry the team).
An experienced, older, talented, eager driver like Montoya might be exactly what McLaren needs at this moment.

[paulzinho]

I'd like to see Mclarens reaction if he did after what happenned with Adrian newey and Jaguar.

[006_007]

I do not think Montoya's decision is a bad one. He is moving from a championship winning team to another championship winning team. Once McLaren get their relatively radical car sorted out I think it will be on pace. I think it is just going to take a bit of time to get there. Perhaps the same amount of time it is going to take for Montoya to get over to McLaren to reap the benefits.

The way I see it, unless he had moved from Ferrari, there is not a whole lot to choose from for next season (at this point in time)

TJ

[esorniloc]

Originally posted by paulzinho
I'd like to see Mclarens reaction if he did after what happenned with Adrian newey and Jaguar.

Well maybe if McLaren had let Newey leave they may have a designer who can design a decent car? I know Adrian designed many good cars upto 2000, but since?????????

[006_007]

Originally posted by esorniloc
Well maybe if McLaren had let Newey leave they may have a designer who can design a decent car? I know Adrian designed many good cars upto 2000, but since?????????

I thought it was Newey that was supposed to go to Jaguar, McLaren poached him, Newey had to wait a year before joining McLaren or something like that. Or maybe that is why Newey has produced "****" cars for the past couple of seasons, he would rather be sailing?

All the drama. Just like a good soap opera!

TJ

[Damon]

No Jaguar had actually poached Newey from McLaren but Ron came back with a counter offer (apparently after the contract with Jag had been signed) and Newey stayed as a result. All a bit dodgy really.

I think your comment about him wanting to go sailing isn't far from the truth through. I think he's lost interst in cars.

[Wrex]

Don has summarised well, so I can only add to that.

I dont want this to sound bad, but why does anyone think Frank would want him? He has'nt been a budle of joy since, and everyone in the garage knows he wanted out, only came back because things did'nt go his way, and would be waiting for him to bail again.

More to the point, I think Frank is cleaning house at the moment. The team needs a change, and 2 up and coming stars (like Webber/Button/Dixon etc) could go very well in a fresh new team.


Back to Monty. Just because this seasons car is slow, does'nt mean next years will be. Anybody remember the 97 Mac? He needs a change, a new environment, a fresh challenge.

IMO, this will JPM a world of good, he will learn new tricks from another top team and I can only see this having a positive effect on his driving and career. And if the car is up to scratch, a WDC trophy could be on its way.

[Panzer]

I think the move to McLaren is positive, and the move Coulthard has to make will be positive for him too, he has become stale at McLaren.

[freud]

I agree with Wrex. JPM needs fresh air and Mclaren can do for him what Williams didnt in past three years. Though the flip side is that I do see an intense rivalry between him and Kimi which might lead to eventual departure of Kimi.

[jetsetter]

I think it was a bad move for JPM to go to McLaren but his decision can't be reversed now he's signed a contract, he'll just have to hope that McLaren improve for next year.

[Kicking-back]

JPM to McLaren will prove to be a good move for him and the team.

Incidentally, to those who say Newey's been producing poor cars - it's a testament to his skills McLaren have been as good as they have been in recent years, given the engine.

[fiona]

JPM based on this year so far probably will be thinking that hes made the wrong move but that what he gets for deciding so early but i think at this point in the season its a wait and see, maybe McLaren will pick the pace up once the euro races start
but even if the mclaren is not on the pace next season then it will show on JPM's driving skills and most of us cant wait to see what he can get out of the car

[Gt_R]

One year is a long time, and Ron should be able to get his team back on track in time for Kimi/JPM charge next year.. So i don't think Juan is overly worried about next season..at least he doesn't have to unless Mclaren still struggle in Monza or something.

Juan had learned a lot from Williams, and considering the stories about the relationship between Juan and the team, perhaps it's better for him to start afresh with a new team, without any burden from the past. people can say it's a move backwards, but a career driving for Williams AND Mclaren is hardly embarrassing.

Juan has the potential, his career history speaks for themselves that this is one guy who nobody should brush off. He can be deadly at times, down at times, but if he keeps working on himself to ever improve, he can be very very difficult to beat.

And hopefully, Ron's the man to bring out the best of Montoya.

[Mekola]

I think Montoya should remain with Williams, but he signed a deal with McLaren, so he must respect his contract.
This case reminds me about Reutemann. Montoya leaves the team in the wrong time. Surely (after one year of adaptation) the new Williams drivers will fight for the championsip in 2006.

[Snrub]

I think it's too late to second guess things. Montoya might wish them otherwise, but he can't do much now to fix them.

[f1atic]

NO - he made his bed. He must now lay in it.

[BootsOntheSide]

He should stick to his guns and switch. This time last year, McLaren looked well set for a title challenge - who can honestly say that they defiantely won't this time next year?

Montoya working with Ron is an interesting situation. MOntoya doesn't fit the stereotype of a McLaren dirve,r but perhaps Ron's renowned calming influence can bring the best out of him more consistanly.

[Kicking-back]

You say Montoya doesn't fit the stereotype of a McLaren driver, but people said the same about Senna to start with, and he did ok!

[Mark Webber]

what's the stats no driver to leave Williams has won a WDC since 66

there is NO WAY fw would take him back IMHO

[DavidStHubbins]

I do not see this Montoya/McLaren thing working out at all. I don't think either party thought this out properly and it has all the potential to blow up bigtime! The car is even worse than last year, and bloody unreliable. JPM will just love that.

[GP Racer]

Originally posted by Don K


He mad a very clear statement by announcing his change to McLaren early.
That is good. It shows a confident sports man who makes decissions when it's needed.

No reason to spoil that image.

That is not good!

What would happen to this sport if all the drivers decided to make moves 1 or 2 years ahead of time? The whole premise is ridiculous, and I have never seen anything like it it, in any sport. Team owners need to have control over there drivers, not the other way around. This set a very bad precedent, and its beginning to spread, as Ralf is now doing the same. Team owners need to nip this problem in the bud, before it gets out of hand. You can bet there are some very bad feelings in the Williams garage over all this.

IMHO, Montoya spoiled his image, by acting like a spoiled child...

[Don K]

Originally posted by GP Racer
That is not good!

What would happen to this sport if all the drivers decided to make moves 1 or 2 years ahead of time? The whole premise is ridiculous, and I have never seen anything like it it, in any sport. Team owners need to have control over there drivers, not the other way around. This set a very bad precedent, and its beginning to spread, as Ralf is now doing the same. Team owners need to nip this problem in the bud, before it gets out of hand. You can bet there are some very bad feelings in the Williams garage over all this.

IMHO, Montoya spoiled his image, by acting like a spoiled child...

I don't agree!

Montoya was not happy with Williams.
So he decided to leave.
And he did it in such a way, that Williams have lots of time to find a replacement.

In stead of saying "I don't like it here, I'll break my contract and go to another team!",
he said "I will keep on working for my team for now. But after one and a half years I will go to another team."

If every driver and every team would respect all their contracts (and would try to find "decent" ways to deal with contracts they don't like, rather than just breaking them and paying some compensation for that), the atmosphere within F1 would be a lot better.

Furthermore:

• Drivers would have more security.
  As a result, they wouldn't have to ask for excessive salaries just in case the teams would break their contracts.
• Teams could (more or less) rely on their sponsors actually paying what they promise to pay.
  In that case, sponsors who didn't pay would actually get a bad name.
• Teams would (more or less) be forced to keep the prommises they make to other teams.
  So the smaller teams wouldn't frequently get into problems because other people break their promisses.

In the current situation however, everybody knows that contracts don't mean a lot in F1.

---

I think we might compare the situations with the team orders.

A couple of years ago, everybody knew that team orders existed. But there was no action against it.

Than Ferrari started to make team orders very visible (for instance by delaying the execution untill the final lap).

And within a few years, lots of regulations were being made to get rid of the team orders.