Formula 1: McLaren replaces Montoya immediately
Looks like Juan Pablo Montoya will be able to start preparing for his NASCAR debut sooner rather than later - Team McLaren Mercedes announced Tuesday that they have released Montoya for the rest of the 2006 F1 season, replacing him with test driver Pedro de la Rosa (shown above with JPM) for the French Grand Prix this weekend.
With current McLaren number one driver Kimi Raikkonen widely assumed to be going to Ferrari next year, de la Rosa will be hoping to turn his substitute drive into a full-time drive for 2007 alongside fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso. McLaren is also likely to use the opportunity created by Montoya's early departure from the team to try out their other test driver, Gary Paffett. Another front-runner for either the #2 seat or a test driver spot at McLaren is young Lewis Hamilton, a Ron Dennis protege who is currently having an outstanding year in the GP2 championship series.
[Source: GrandPrix.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Martinello 3:46PM (7/11/2006)
The weidro is gone! The end of Montoya's stupidity in F1 is going to save all teams tons of money, probably the other teams paid Mercedes to let him go right away...
His arrogance and "It was not my fault" attitude will do much better at NASCAR -- Columbian redneck!
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Bob 3:49PM (7/11/2006)
Formula what? Is that a junior division of NASCAR?
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Chad Gallion 4:00PM (7/11/2006)
Well, that's what happens when you can't deliver the goods. Tennis accident . . . yeah right.
What a way to go out of F1! Come to America and ram your teammate in the first corner. I think that sums up his feelings about McLaren and being second to Kimi (who rocks, by the way).
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chewy 4:09PM (7/11/2006)
Yep, Montoya hasn't accomplished that much in F1. Sure when he had the best car he won some races. But even with an above avergae equipment, he hasn't done well at all recently. Hope that he does well in NASCAR.
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Dude 4:11PM (7/11/2006)
NASCAR can have JP and Villeneuve. Please, take them now.
http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/11072006/13/eyes-nascar.html
#2 - Kimi does rock. If he's not the heir apparent, then I don't know who is (it's not Alsonso).
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Chris 4:14PM (7/11/2006)
F1 is not racing anymore, its just cars following each other around with drivers along for the ride for 60 laps with no passing!
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Andy 4:56PM (7/11/2006)
Drivers who can't cut it in F1 are relegated to drive in NASCAR. BTW, NASCAR - the 1950s called.. they want their technology back.
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Steve C. 5:17PM (7/11/2006)
I just can't put into words how unimportant F1 is to American motor racing. It continues to degenerate into a technology-driven exercise for the mega-rich team owners and manufacturers for whom Europe is a prime market for their products.
With the demise of US open-wheel racing (thanks to Tony George), NASCAR has blossomed and each year more Americans become NASCAR fans.
Americans loved JPM when he raced CART "Indy Cars" and I believe fans will embrace him in NASCAR, too.
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MikeInNC 5:48PM (7/11/2006)
NASCAR fans. Any race series where the car owner takes out their driver and replaces him with someone who can turn right for two tracks a year shouldn't be running off at the mouth about anything. NASCAR is the Pro Wrestling of auto racing. Really entertaining but no one should really take it seriously. Racing at it's purest is sports car racing. That never happens on an oval.
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cf harbour 6:50PM (7/11/2006)
Junior should go to F-1 and show them how the good old boys drive.
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James 7:02PM (7/11/2006)
CNN Headline News is reporting that Schumacher is talking with NASCAR and may race there in 2007 also. He hopes to "team up" with Danica Patrick for one helluva ride.
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Cali Joe 7:17PM (7/11/2006)
#8 is right.. NASCAR is pro wrestling. It's manufactured drama. Drafting/slingshot/passing over and over again in an oval isn't racing. Only people who don't truly understand racing watch NASCAR. A single late-braking passing manuever that took 15 laps to set up in F1 is thrilling compared to the back-and-forth roller-derby-esque jockeying that is NASCAR.
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James2 10:01PM (7/11/2006)
NASCAR is Pro Wrestling on wheels, where Socialists designed the rules, but F1 needs help.
F1 needs to get rid of Bernie and Max. F1 needs to get rid of sterile, "safety first", look-alike circuits and replace them with more challenging tracks that actually encourage overtaking. Monaco, while clearly not a look-alike track, is a pure qualify-first-and-you-win track. It should go away, but won't.
Max Mosley is like an anti-King Midas. Everything he touches turns to lead. First it was the stupid (ask Kimi, ask Indy 2005), one tire-per-race rule. Now, it's the 2.4-liter V8 engine rule, which actually has the cars cornering faster than ever and discourages overtaking. He keeps harping on about costs, but everything he decrees (such as a 2-race engine) only forces teams to spend even more money on R&D.
As for money, if Bernie didn't suck up so much and leave the teams relative crumbs, maybe Max wouldn't be so anal about controlling costs. There should be some weighted formula that gives the small fry like Midland a greater percentage of the purse than mighty Ferrari, once Bernie realizes that without the teams there is no Formula One.
Juan Pablo, good luck, but NASCAR sucks.
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Chris 11:50PM (7/11/2006)
I really don't find it too interesting when Alonso or Schumacher takes the pole, gets a great start, and thats it. Race over. Alot of times no one evr comes to close to passing the leader at the end of a race. Just look at the finishes, Bahrain: Alonso by 1.2 seconds, Malaysia: Fisichella by 4.5 seconds, Australia: Alonso by 1.8 seconds, and here's a close one, Spainish GP: Alonso by 18.5 seconds!!!! Boy, that'll put you on the edge of your seat. What a reward for watching a race. F1 has had about 3 or 4 races where the margin of victory is more than 12 seconds! Now I am not saying NASCAR is super exciting for the entire race but at least there is a finish!
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true race fan 3:04AM (7/12/2006)
I consider myself a true race fan. I don't watch NASCAR because I don't enjoy it. I do try to watch the Sears Point and Watkins Glen races, although often after too many yellows, I just can't finish watching them.
I found out about the Montoya thing because Speed broke into the excellent Grand Am Cup (touring cars) race on Sunday to put 39 minutes of Montoya press conference over the 2 hour Grand Am Cup race. The Grand Am Cup race was excellent by the way, Grand Am is on a huge roll this year. They have the other kind of car count problem. They not only have a raft of those ugly prototypes in the Rolex races, but they had 93 cars try to qualify for the Cup race at Mod-Ohio, and had to whittle the field down to 75!
Anyway, I do see the excitement in a pass in F1 that takes several laps to set up, and an outbraking pass is exciting. But sadly, those kinds of passes don't really happen for points paying positions in F1. The passes are almost all in the pits. There aren't any outbraking passes because the carbon brakes have reduced the braking zones to be too short. If they could make the braking zones longer, there'd be a lot more passing. If they put real shifters back in the cars so that drivers had to take their hands off the wheel and potentially screw up, there'd be a lot more passing. If they took traction control off so that parabolica required immense skill again instead of just laying the pedal flat and letting the computer cut the engine out at the top, there might be more passing.
The rarity of passing in F1 makes any pass for points exciting. Sadly though, there just isn't enough of it.
Steve C. is right, F1 just isn't relevant in American racing right now.
American Le Mans (ALMS) is taking sports car racing to heights approaching those of the 70s and early 80s IMSA cars. Le Mans itself is currently dominated by ALMS teams and by American teams in all classes except P1. And Grand Am is coming on so strong, they might even pass up ALMS in a few years. It is rumored you can put together a Grand Am Daytona Prototype (top class in the Rolex series) car for as little as $350,000.
Production-based racing is becoming huge, car counts in production-based road racing are exploding, with the sport reaching levels I don't think it has ever reached before in the US.
Meanwhile, open wheel is dead. With the disastrous split of IRL and CART (to be fixed next year?), American open wheel has dropped to the lowest ebb in 50 years. And thus American participation in F1 is hovering around zero, with American interest only slightly higher.
Only when IRL and CART get back together and the Indy 500 and Long Beach Grand Prix return to the American consciousness will any kind of open wheel racing matter in the US again.
And if things keep going they way they're going, open wheel will have to fight off both NASCAR and sports car racing in order to get back to the top.
Formula One meanwhile is having huge troubles with costs and so of course with car counts. Now they give up on the Concorde Agreement and allow teams to create 2nd rate backup teams just to fill up the grid. No longer is it a series where every team must design and make their own chassis and thus presumably make an attempt to win. Now for some teams it's just about getting the car out and to complete enough laps to get their sponsors airtime. When not racing in North American, Toro Rosso wouldn't even let Scott Speed go out to try to make qualifying time outside of the bottom six. They knew he didn't have enough engine to do it anyway. That's not the spirit of racing I like to see.
Now that I think of it, the only series in worse shape than F1 right now is WRC. Virtually every team is now priced out of the market.
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moa 7:32AM (7/12/2006)
#13 (and others complaining about dull races)
that is side-effect of beeing "the pinnacle of motorsport". there are world's best drivers, not making mistakes, reliable cars and pit crews, so fastest car/driver combo qualifies first and then finishes first. who can overtake him when he's fastest? and the same goes on for next copule of places. then the fun begins, in the middle field drivers aren't so perfect, cars break down, pit crews making mistakes...
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true race fan 12:52PM (7/12/2006)
Fine moa, it's the pinnacle. If the pinnacle is this boring, I'm not interested in the pinnacle.
If you make it out to be a fait accompli, why even have a race? You already know the outcome because no one makes any mistakes. If you already know the outcome, where's the excitement in even having the race? Just put the cars on dynos, the drivers on reaction meters and calculate the champion in late spring and dispense with all the wasteful racing.
I'm more interested in excitement than technical excellence I guess. But then I knew that already, since I really enjoy watching production-based racing.
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moa 9:16AM (7/13/2006)
#16 i agree with you, and i'm not trying to defend f1, i'm simply showing the reason why it is like that.
nowadays f1 race is just proof for team owner that his design department with all computers and windtunels did the right job. all the fight is behind the desk and monitors.
i also, like you, enjoy production cars racing, but they are so rare today. WRC is all about one-off cars only disguised to look like everyday ones, even touring cars in europe are not the same as 10 years ago...
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racingfan 2:59PM (7/16/2006)
It was bad enough that nascar is allowing scum sucking toyota in, but now we will have to endure that whining pig juan Pigo montoya!! I could careless to see that jerk in a stock car and I don't care to hear about his talent!It seems his real talent is whining & crying that he is picked on! I hear that besides being a self-important jerk, he is also a pig that does not believe in being fit and spends his time stuffing his face at McDonalds! I think its odd that no other F1 team has said much about wanting him after he was removed from from his last team, can you say, 'wore out your welcome' or 'good riddance'!!! I think el pigo needs to go back the the drug capitol of South America and race go carts to & from McDonalds as he stuffs his face.
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