If you were Montoya or Franchitti....

[KC]

Would you leave a top line CART team to go to Jaguar or Williams? If you were Montoya or Franchitti would you leave your established and excellent seat for a chance to drive for an F1 team that you know will not be regularly challenging McLaren and Ferrari, much less Jordan for overall wins? The one thing that both have is the extreme desire to race in F1. But besides that fact, I personally think there would only be one reason to go to F1 and that would be for the big money. No one realistically expects either Jaguar or BMW/Williams to suddenly get real racy with the top teams in just one year. They might not ever catch up to them. Is a racing career like Johnny Herbert's more desirable than one like Montoya and Zanardi enjoyed during their reigns as CART champs? I'm not so sure. Nothing against F1, but it is a series of very few haves and many have nots. I don't think I would be so eager to run off to F1 and quite possible suffer the same fate as Alex Zanardi.

[Sharky]

I would go. Reasons?

Those 2 guys have always had F1 as their main goal. They just took the seats in CART for a while but they want to race F1. Montoya, for example, was expected to join the Williams team in 98 but Williams decided to give a chance to an experienced driver like Zanardi and try out Montoya somewhere else.

Now....particulary for montoya.....there's really nothing else he can do in the US. He has done everything an open wheel driver can do in the US which is winning the CART championship and winning the indy 500 and he's done both as a rookie. What else can he do at the US?? Win both things again??? That would be sooooo booring. Now....the situation for him in CART isn't that good. Ganassi's idea of taking the Toyota engine and the lola chasis has given Juan a real headache. I've already lost count of how many DNF's he's had because of mechanical failture. And Dario is having a really bad season....mainly because of the accident he had on preseason testing and a streak of bad luck.

Now....I know that everybody in F1 keeps talking about the Zanardi fiasco but I can assure you that for him it was a case of lack of motivation and I have read a lot of articles of journalist that cover both CART and F1 that agree with me. On the other hand these 2 guys are ready and want to go to F1.....and I think that both will do a great job when they get the chance.

[Liz]

If I were Montoya, I'd go - as Sharky said, he has done it all in the States. But Franchitti should stay in the CART series until Jaguar improves. He's got a championship to win in CART yet - if I were he, that's what I would concentrate on and let someone else develop the Jaguars.

[Minardi fan]

If I were Montoya, I'd get down off my high horse and stop gesticulating at drivers who are in higher positions than me.

If I were Dario, I'd wait - Jaguar are still hopeless. After all this hype, they lie 9th in the championship - the last of the scoring teams. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

[gomick]

if i were franchitti i would stay at team kool green, afterall isnt he marrying an american country singer or something.....montoya should go to f1, (there is nothing else to achieve there unless he wants to try nascar) and race hard against schumi and the ferrari, hopefully the williams will be up to it. juan wouldnt back down to anyone and it would be interesting to see how he went against ralf, i really hope it happens in 2001...bring on melbourne.

[Nuvolari]

Montoya should go . . . Franchitti stay.

I think Juan Pablo has a reasonable chance of doing well in F1. I don't have the same feeling about Dario.

And no, he's not marrying a country singer. She is an actress.

[Super Tourer]

Montoya def ready for F1, he has nothing more to prove in Cart, as already previously mentioned. He is one of those drivers who is 'on it' straight away. I expect him to be brilliant in F1.

Dario on the hand.... I am a firm believer in the drivers only getting one chance to prove themselves at the top level. Which is why Button is in F1 and drivers like Mark Hynes are tooling around the paddock looking for drivers.

Dario blew his chance in the Jag run, you need to leave them gasping "sign this boy now !", not shall we give him another run to see if he can go any quicker.....

He was even slower on the second day of running, don't believe all the PR BS about a 'nice day out for Dario', that was a serious test and I guess Dario is kicking himself because that is his F1 chance gone.....

He has looked all out of sorts in Cart this year. That big shunt obviously affected him more than he thought, he seems to have no rythmn and has got caught up in too many silly incidents. Remember he was title favourite.....

[F1FansClub]

Montoya should go to Williams because they ahve really improved and might have a chance at beating Ferrari and McLaren in 2001/2002!

As for Dario Franchitti he should stay because as said before, Jag are still not brilliant and he should wait for a better drive to come along.

Ally

[KC]

Williams started off well enough but have faltered in the last three races with poor qualifying efforts and poor results. Managing to finish in the top ten when there are only 10 cars left is not much of an improvement. Montoya is definitely quick, but he is only as quick as the car is. The problem Williams will have competing with McLaren or ferrari is that they are not consistently fast on every circuit. McLaren and Ferrari are. This is the same reason why Jordan has been unable to compete this year as well. Not even Montoya's vaunted skills can overcome this. I also do not think Montoya will have the patience to work well within Williams infrastructure. Invariably, if a driver does well in a Williams it is chalked up to the car and when a driver does poor he is not trying hard enough. Montoya is only happy when he is dominating and winning. This will not be happening in a Williams anytime soon.

[Sharky]

But you've got to understand KC that Williams is still going trough a development process. And so far they have performed according to plan....perhaps not as good as many expected after the first few races but their performance has been according to plan. But both BMW and Williams still have a lot of money to spend on the car and I strongly believe that they'll be on top of the grid once more in the near future. As for montoya's patience....I'm actually quite suprised by the way he has handled all the problems he's had with the car this year and with faulty setups in some races (Cleveland and Portland for example)....he'll do just fine at williams. And don't forget......he's already worked with the team during the 98 season as the primary test driver (over 8000 miles) so he knows how things are at the team. And besides......even if he falls in an underpowered car....he'll still have the chance to show his talent in F1 which could secure him a drive with a better team.

[KC]

I do understand that it is a developmental engine from BMW, but as the team concentrates on developing the engine, other teams concentrate on getting faster. Nothing stands still.

With the European press's penchant for antagonistic journalism, will Montoya be able to handle the added pressure? After his first race that ends in some sort of failure and the press are painting him in a less than favorable light will he explode at the press as he has done here in the States last year? I sincerely hope he has no problems, I just think I would wait for a better seat if I were him. I think another successful year in CART will do more for his career than another Zanardi episode will.

[Sharky]

But which is a better seat. The Mclaren duo seems to have a lot of time left and even then Ron will want to hire someone with F1 experience. As for Ferrari.....Montoya already stated once that he doesn't want to be Schumacher's #2. And even if he stays at CART he'll only have one more year and then it will be Frank Williams the one to decide where he races.....so he would end up at williams anyway. As for the press.....I personally think that he'll show the skepticall F1 press what he's capable of just like he did when he entered CART....but I think he can handle the press.

[Ed-f1]

I think Williams will be back at the fromt before long. It's where they belong. Montoya should do OK but I don't think he'll be a match for Ralf Schumacher anytime soon.