Montoya in shock NASCAR switch

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=36574

"Juan Pablo Montoya will turn his back on Formula 1 at the end of this season and switch to America’s NASCAR series.

The McLaren driver will reunite with Chip Ganassi Racing, with whom he achieved spectacular success on his last stint racing in the USA, winning the 1999 Champ Car title and the 2000 Indianapolis 500."

!!!!

That is some cool news. Montoya is a great driver... I'm sure he'll get used to having mushy iron brake rotors, boaty handling and 'nudging' in no-time.

Rob W

Should suit Juan's driving to be honest.

He loves a bit of rough and tumble and this will suit him just fine.

he's not driving anymore for this season either - pedro de la rosa will take his seat for the remainder of the season

Ha ha, maybe McLaren were pissed off with him over the crash the other week :p

Actually, De La Rosa (and Alex Wurz) are better drivers than more than half of the grid... about time they started getting more races.

Rob W

Hopefully Alex Wurz will be racing for Williams next year.

I'd like to see Kovaleinnen, Davidson, Wurz, and maybe Hamilton, and De La Rosa racing next year. We won't get Hamilton and De La Rosa racing as they are both Ron Dennis property.

As for drivers I wouldn't mind going to allow these guys in? Well JPM is gone, so that is one, now to remove 3 more, Trulli, Ralf Schumacher, and probably Tiago Monteiro, Albers is showing more potential than him at the moment.

I think JPM is going straight away for the team dynamic, and the fact that Juan bad mouthed F1 for being boring racing and saying he had been unhappy for a while.

Apparently Indy driver Danica Patrick is following suit at the end of the year.... Like Nascar needed any more popularity in the us.

he has been replaced already, by de la rosa

Think we're thinking long-term. No-one else could have replaced him for this next reace in reality. But the options for the rest of the season were/are wide-open.

Would be good to see De Le Rosa get a drive.

Rob W

De La Rosa really did have problems getting past some slower cars yesterday.

When he got out in the open he really did seem to perform though.

lol yer for a while he was lapping quicker than kimi! i think he did really well aye

De La Rosa is very quick... I'll be he didn't take any of his usual big-ballsed passing attempts because finishing in the points consistently is his only chance of retaining the drive next year.. or even for the rest of the season. He is such a good test-driver that McLaren will not want to have him driving in races probably... or they'll have to spend a year, maybe three, getting another test driver up to speed.

I bet they're regretting letting Alez Wurz go to Williams. He'd be the guy they want. Same thing happened when they let Panis go.

Rob W

Wurz also had problems fitting in the Mclaren cars of late though.

The Mclarens have been very narrow and he has not fit in the car, he is tall amongst F1 drivers and had to wait until a few months into last year for him to even test the MP4-21. I think this could be one of the reasons they let him go; not having to design a car with a tall (and thus naturally wider) driver in mind also.