Montoya to McLaren for '05 - Official

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vat_man

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From grandprix.com

As we reported some months ago, Juan Pablo Montoya will be moving to McLaren in 2005. The news was announced on Monday by Team McLaren Mercedes.

"I am thrilled to be joining Team McLaren Mercedes," said Montoya. "The team is consistently a strong World Championship contender and has a fantastic heritage. It's a great opportunity for me and I'm really looking forward to the first time I will be able to drive one of their cars. To join them is an amazing challenge and experience which I plan to fully enjoy. However, my short term aim is to concentrate 100 per-cent on winning the 2004 World Championship."

The announcement is bad news for David Coulthard, although not unexpected, as Kimi Raikkonen is known to have a deal with McLaren for 2005.

"The opportunity to sign a talent like Juan Pablo was too good to miss," said Ron Dennis. "Juan Pablo has achieved a considerable amount of success in his career and we are certain that he will add to this with Team McLaren Mercedes. We are certainly looking forward to seeing what he can do in one of our cars and I believe that it's a prospect that can't fail to excite Formula 1 fans around the world."
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So:
- where to for Coulthard?
- who gets the second Williams seat?
- how will Montoya fit in at McLaren?
 
Well, Well. Two title contenders in teh same team? Hello Prost/Senna friendliness? I just hope Kimi gets the preferential treatment :D

Of course that begs the question, who will Ferrari sign up to rival this combo. Surely, it has to be Alonso?
 
Yeah, Alonso is capable of contending for the title. He was pretty amazing at Renault this year, can't wait to see more. :D

It's gonna be interesting to see Montoya and Kimi on the same team, boy this is gonna be good.
 
Briatore will move heaven and earth to keep Alonso, who he manages as well as employs. Whilst I understand that Briatore is financially motivated, and thus open to the sort of big-money offer that Ferrari would be willing and able to place, I can't see him letting go of Alonso yet.

Especially in light of the fact that Fiat are scaling back their financial commitment (reducing Ferrari's buying power), and Renault are not. And anyone who looks to the history books for evidence would do well to remember that Schumacher was not managed by Briatore, and had two world titles to his name when Ferrari lured him away.

I think Ferrari are backing Massa long-term.
 
Ah, scenes from the '80s of Senna and Prost are about to emerge. Can't wait to see it :mischievous:

Senna -- Kimi Raikkonen
Prost -- Juan Pablo Montoya
 
Originally posted by GilesGuthrie
Briatore will move heaven and earth to keep Alonso, who he manages as well as employs. Whilst I understand that Briatore is financially motivated, and thus open to the sort of big-money offer that Ferrari would be willing and able to place, I can't see him letting go of Alonso yet.

Especially in light of the fact that Fiat are scaling back their financial commitment (reducing Ferrari's buying power), and Renault are not. And anyone who looks to the history books for evidence would do well to remember that Schumacher was not managed by Briatore, and had two world titles to his name when Ferrari lured him away.

I think Ferrari are backing Massa long-term.
Click to expand...

Well I hope you are wrong on Massa - I dont think he is champion material.

I hear you on Briatore. One thing to consider though is that Alonso wasnt too happy with the Renault this year. Another average year there, a seat opening up at Ferrari and the lure of "Bright lights, Big city" may lead him to Ferrari, despite Briatore's best efforts.
 
It's hard to know what's going on with Webber - on top of the 2+2 contract with Jaguar, he has an agreement with Renault/Flavio Briatore, which no-one seems to know the details of
 
One very good story and plausible idea is that Briatore is going to let Webber mature at Jaguar first then after his contract with Jaguar, he's going to bring him over to Renault to partner Alonso, and hopefully have his dream team of drivers. Though I'd like to see Webber stay at Jaguar, as believe it or not, IMO I can see Webber making Jaguar by 2005 title contenders :) .
 
Originally posted by Hakkinen
Ah, scenes from the '80s of Senna and Prost are about to emerge. Can't wait to see it :mischievous:

Senna -- Kimi Raikkonen
Prost -- Juan Pablo Montoya
Click to expand...

Surely you mean that the other way around?

I'm beginning to think that the Webber/Williams tie-up won't happen. Although I can't decide whether I have real grounds for that, or whether I'm just reacting against the weight of opinion. I do know however that Williams' aren't thinking about it too urgently at the moment. I would think that you'll see them pick up a few young test drivers this year though.
 
I'm inclined to agree - I think it would be more likely Webber would head over to Renault - although I heard on the weekend that he's still in discussions with Williams.
 
Originally posted by wee_man
Though I'd like to see Webber stay at Jaguar, as believe it or not, IMO I can see Webber making Jaguar by 2005 title contenders :) .
Click to expand...

i wish i could agree with you, but unfortuately, i cant see jag become title contenders by 2005. they dont have the resourses
 
Originally posted by millencolin
i wish i could agree with you, but unfortuately, i cant see jag become title contenders by 2005. they dont have the resourses
Click to expand...

Particularly with stories of Ford's financial woes continuing to circulate.

Hopefully Webber's new team mate will come up to scratch.
 
Originally posted by vat_man
Particularly with stories of Ford's financial woes continuing to circulate.

Hopefully Webber's new team mate will come up to scratch.
Click to expand...

That's unlikely, I would have said. The hot tip is Christian Klein, who comes with $6m of Red Bull money.

[EDIT]Not a "tip" any more. He's been announced. I'm glad I didn't buy any Justin Wilson shares![/EDIT]
 
wilson should of got the drive, he is a better driver

lucky klein, being sponsored by red bull, he probibly gets endless supplies of it. YUM!!
 
I really don't know what to think, of Klien joining the team. He maybe all very good, but you need to be phenominal to drive an F1 car competitivly. Unfortunatly I saw Wilson as another Coulthard. He's good, but he's not a natural, say unlike people, like Schumacher, Raikonen, Montoya and Webber :) .Hopefully Klien will be another Webber, and if so I think Jaguar will be best of the rest for 2004 (be presuming that Renault will actually finally constant serious title contenders). And with that extra cash from Red Bull, hopefully that could be put to good use. I think that Jaguar mainly signed Klien for his sponsorship of Red Bull. But time will tell :) .
 
From what I can gather (his web site is in German), he had a fairly patchy set of results in this year's European Formula 3 championship. He was second in the championship, some way off Ryan Briscoe.

Other than that, I'm not aware of his work.

It's obviously about the Red Bull money.
 
Originally posted by GilesGuthrie
From what I can gather (his web site is in German), he had a fairly patchy set of results in this year's European Formula 3 championship. He was second in the championship, some way off Ryan Briscoe.

Other than that, I'm not aware of his work.

It's obviously about the Red Bull money.
Click to expand...

I think he won the German Formula Renault series in '01 or '02, and was running in sports cars prior to that.

It can't be good for Jaguar's credibility. I wonder with Ford's financial woes if this isn't a foot in the door for the much speculated Red Bull grand prix team?
 
he isnt the worst pay driver around. still ford is i think the second biggest car company in the world. you would think you would have enough money for the team not to get a pay-driver
 
Well after Jaguar's first years they cut back on funding didn't they, abd as others have said I'd imagine at the moment Jaguar F1 isn't Fords main concern at the moment. I can't really see Red Bull buying out Jaguar though. I mean come on at one stage you could of said that Red Bull had their foot in the door with Sauber and their sponsorship on the side of their cars. It's an idea, but I can't personally see it actually coming to light.
And Roo where'd you get yuor avatar from? I like it.:)
 
Jaguar has been plagued by mismanagement. Now, with Ford perilously close to bankruptcy, and their core truck market under threat, their focus is unlikely to be on a Formula One team that is branded after their luxury division that also seems curiously directionless.

That said, I can't see Ford having a valid exit strategy for Jaguar that wouldn't cost them even more credibility. They're in a curious position where success is unlikely to help their core profit-making brands, but failure reflects poorly on the whole group, and therefore definitely will affect market share.

Like I say, mismanagement is at the heart of it all, and I've been beating this drum for years now. Ford should employ me as a management consultant!

Interestingly, BMW and Mercedes are each spending in the region of $100m annually (Mercedes slightly less, BMW slightly more), on just the engine program. It wouldn't surprise me if this is more than Jaguar's whole budget.
 
I dont think that mclaren will have anthing that will be better than williams. If anything williams will get stronger for the next few years.

I perosnally would love to see JV and JPM in williams for the next couple of years that would be some team.

Against MS and RS in Ferraris.
 
I found JPM's move to McLaren a bit ironic. Here you have Ron Dennis an uptight arse who doesn't want his cars getting wrecked by wreckless driver, and here you have the same guy who's crashed into his own team-mate several times...

And just for the record my prediction: JPM will end up writing a book claiming crap about McLaren lol. It's almost inevitable.

BTW-Am I the only one freaked out by the vision of seeing JPM in a McLaren suit?
 
Well, I thought Ron Dennis would be dead before I saw Nigel Mansell running around in a McLaren, so it goes to prove anything can happen in F1 - and don't forget Senna could be a bit prone to the odd shunt (and certainly ran into a certain French team mate on a couple of occasions!).

He's going to have to be a lot more consistent to run with Raikkonen, though. JPM is a bit prone to 'off' weekends (although not to the extent that Ralf is), and with Kimi getting another year under his belt, I really don't think he'll be able to afford those in '05.

That said, I'd be inclined to suggest that he's probably in the 'team most likely' for '04, so he'd be well advised to pull his finger out.
 

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