McLaren interview with Montoya

McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya talks about winter testing

Q: What has been your main programme for testing so far?

Juan Pablo Montoya: Mainly we have been concentrating on working on the set up of the car and acclimatising me to it. In addition we have also continued with our tyre testing programme.

Juan Pablo Montoya.

Photo by David Lopez.

Q: What is your feeling for the car?

JPM: It is really good; there are many things about it that work really well. At the moment I have been learning to adapt my driving style to optimise the performance of the car as not everything with the car suits the way I have been driving for the last four years.

Q: Was there anything that you were worried about prior to driving the MP4-19B?

JPM: Before I ever drove the car I had an image of the steering wheel and the layout was quite different to what I have been used to previously, so I was a little worried about that. However within two days of driving the car in Barcelona I had completely adapted to using it and when I arrived in Jerez it wasn't even something I thought about. I just got in the car and drove.

Q: Are you looking forward to working with Kimi?

JPM: Yes, I get on really well with Kimi, he is one of the few drivers that I really can talk to as we have a lot in common and share many hobbies, such as MotoX. We have always made the effort to talk during the driver's parade, perhaps more so since we knew we were going to be working together."

Q: Are you confident about this year?

JPM: It will be really nice if we are in a position to win and challenge for the championship, but at the moment it is too early to tell as we are still just doing a lot of set up work on the car. We also need to see how competitive we will be and I need to get used to working with the team more before I even start to consider my challenge this season. However I have to say so far so good.

Q: Are you enjoying driving the car?

JPM: It has been improving each day, I have been driving a different car for the last four years so there is a lot for me to adapt to. We have been testing the car in lots of different set ups so that we can establish how I react to everything. This means we can get an understanding of what works for me and where I am not as comfortable. It takes time but it means that we will have a perfect car at the end of the day.

Q: Are you disappointed that you have not yet tested with Kimi?

JPM: This is not really a problem for me as it means I have been able to concentrate on adjusting to the car without being compared to my new team-mate. I would expect that he would be faster than me as he has been driving the car for years as I would want it to be the same of me if it were the other way round. At the moment I have really just been concentrating on setting up the car rather than lap times and comparisons.

-mclaren-