Formula 1
Montoya looking for new adventure
There have been various theories offered as to why Juan Pablo Montoya is leaving Williams for McLaren but the man himself claims he is just looking for new challenges. 2004 will be the Colombian's fourth year with Williams and come the end of it he ...
Published: Feb 20, 2004, 8:18 PM
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There have been various theories offered as to why Juan Pablo Montoya is leaving Williams for McLaren but the man himself claims he is just looking for new challenges. 2004 will be the Colombian's fourth year with Williams and come the end of it he will be happy to move on to new pastures.
Juan Pablo Montoya.
Photo by Brousseau Photo.
"I think that Frank and the mechanics are great guys and I am sad to leave them," Montoya told ITV-F1. "But at the end of the year I am looking for a new adventure. I got to the point in my career where I wanted to try something different. So I made this decision and I think it's the right one."
McLaren boss Ron Dennis believes he can help Montoya develop further than he could at Williams but Juan Pablo, although hoping that will happen, is cautious about predicting the future. "That was one of the arguments he gave me to sign me," he said of Dennis' confidence in making more of him.
"We will have to see. They (McLaren) might, they might not. I will give 100%. You know better than anyone that when I'm in the car I drive the wheels off it every lap because I love it."
"There are a lot of things which help to realise your potential, if they back you up and so on. As a drive you always have to improve yourself, but there are a lot of times where things don't go your way or the team go against you and that doesn't give you a lot of confidence."
Another source of speculation is how Montoya will get on with McLaren's 'Iceman' Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn is supposedly the team's favoured son and the two could hardly be more different, with Raikkonen's cool detachment and Montoya's fiery impulsiveness. Juan Pablo isn't worried.
"It will be good if we can learn to work together, because that way we can try to push each other above everyone else," he said. "If we do it will be great for McLaren.You obviously feel that you can beat him in equal cars."
"I don't think I'm quicker than anyone else, but I don't think I'm slower either. If you do a better job across the whole weekend than him then I'll probably finish ahead of him, if he does a better job then he'll be ahead of me. I don't have to beat Kimi. I'm not thinking about that. He wants it just as badly as I do. It's like when I came to Williams, for the first six months Ralf blew me away and since then I seem to have had the better of him."
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