Juan vs Ralph

[Speed]

Originally posted by kuchi:
"so Ralf will have to be better in qualifying and on the race, at least he should, he must, and if he doesn´t remember button still belongs to Sir Frank, would we see Montoya and Jenson together?????"

MMMMMMmmmmmm, RG, How would you like to be called Montoya's Girl or Jenson's Girl ???

[Liz]

Sure, Ralf can beat a brand-new F1 pilot on a track the newbie has never driven before, in a practice session. (Unlike Irvine, I might add, who looked definitely shabby until Burti put himself into the wall.)

Ask all the people who were hooting at JPM before his first race in Champ Cars if what you see on the first day is all you're going to get.

Anyway the argument will give us plenty to talk about. And I see Ladbrokes is giving the same odds to Montoya, Ralfie and Alesi. (4/1) so tonight/tomorrow will be the proof of that pudding.

[Peter Mallett]

To take Liz's point about a "newbie". Montoya certainly looked reasonable but not exceptional today so on that form I expect him to be running with Ralf tomorrow. He's at least closer to Ralf than Zanardi was at his first visit to Melbourne.

Still there's a whole season to go yet. We might still get the chance to "bag" him.

[Valve Bounce]

Peter, I think that would be difficult for JPM to run with Ralf, as much as I would like to see that. There are two rows of cars between them on the grid, Ralf qualified over a second faster, and unless JPM wants to stuff the car into the kitty litter, I think he would be better off driving conservatively in this first race, wait for the attrition, and get some points for Sir Frank. It is much more difficult to pass in F1 than what JPM is used to, so I think JPM will play it cool tomorrow.

[RT]

So now JPM "the awesome" is CART Juan the newbie?. Could it be that Juan is just plainly not as good as Ralf?.

Over one second a lap speaks volumes and and is louder than Juan's statements. Qualifying also confirmed that Nick Heidfeld is a very underated driver, (NH for DC in 2002?).

A real "newbie" F1 racer is like Villenueve when he first raced Damon in Melbourne.

I wonder if Valve Bounce's humble pie is ready?. I'd suggest washing it down with crisp, cool German wine. There is an excellent producer of Riesling around Kerpen.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally posted by RT
So now JPM "the awesome" is CART Juan the newbie?. Could it be that Juan is just plainly not as good as Ralf?.

Over one second a lap speaks volumes and and is louder than Juan's statements. Qualifying also confirmed that Nick Heidfeld is a very underated driver, (NH for DC in 2002?).

A real "newbie" F1 racer is like Villenueve when he first raced Damon in Melbourne.

I wonder if Valve Bounce's humble pie is ready?. I'd suggest washing it down with crisp, cool German wine. There is an excellent producer of Riesling around Kerpen.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. The use of the words "excellent" and "Reisling" in the same sentence. Unique.

I'm not a great fan of Montoya because I believe him to be overrated and his only real credentials lie in his nationality. However there can be no doubt that to win in Champcars and the Indy 500 you need to be good so I reckon he's a good F1 driver. Whether he's an F1 RACER only time will tell.

[RT]

Well I guess it was neither Riesling nor any loftier wine. I agree we'll have to wait and see over several races. I'll still root for Ralf.
As much as I dislike him, we probably must credit Juan for stirring all this excitement and banter leading to the first race.
It's too bad that there was a death though.

[Mania]

I personally feel Juan Montoya did a great job for his first race in F1. I think Ralf is the better driver of the two and Im pretty sure Ralf will end up on top at the end of the season. So in that regard I have always believed that Montoya was being over-rated as a giant-killer in F1 - after all this is F1 - the best drivers are in F1 - and I doubt whether Montoya could kick their butt like some were predicting.

That said, he did a good job and he looked to be having a lot of fun which is always refreshing. Did you guys see the "exhange" b/w him and Button when the safety car was out - Juan was moving to a different line and Button was accelerating and then braking to let Montoya know he was there - great stuff

Anyway, he was good. Unlucky not to get some points but he was still solid.

Ps - I think its possible to root for Ralf and NOT dislike Juan Montoya at the same time too

[Dino IV]

And Montoya recorded the fourth fastest race-lap!

That's quite an achievement I'd say. And judging from the inboards it's pretty much 100% sure that the Williams doesn't feature traction control.

[Wrex]

To be fair to both sides of the argument, Juan is no Michael schumacher killer, but does deserve his place in F1.

I also watched him in CART (I was a big supporter in fact) and some of his drives were absolutely amazing, others though, had many errors.

IMO he will go on to be one of the better drivers in F1, maybe even WDC, but with the experience Ralf already has, this year will be catch-up for him. Ralf will come out on top (another great driver in the making), but I expect the gap to close later in the season.

[kuchi]

I think this wasn´t a good weekend for williams, so we can not tell which driver did better, although I´m very happy for what Juan did. But if Ralf would not have crashed, the story might´ve turned a little different, because he was running good at the top 6, so anyway Montoya showed he can run with the best if his car is ok, but if it´s not.....well good luck in Malasya JPM.

[Speed]

Originally posted by Peter Mallett

his only real credentials lie in his nationality

What does this mean ???

[RussianFriend]

JV's rookey results in Adelaida were made behing the best wheels of that year, when Williams has no real competitors. Plus some good luk and Hills bad one.

Now Willams is strong but it's third car to be honest, red and silver ones are still stronger.

I think we should wait. One race doesn't make the whole championship. in any case we'll see if he may do the thing he's expected to do.

[Orange]

I have been staying out of this, because in all honesty, I had no idea how he would perform in F1. No one will deny that he is amazing in a Champ car, but I think that he could easily end up as an also-ran in F1. He has not had the luck that JV had, to come into a top team, and I think he will be frustrated. How he deals with his frustration and possible lack of results (I predict 4/5 pts this year)will define his ultimate place in F1. If he gets angry, and starts taking it out on other drivers on-track, his career will be over. If he raises his game, he could have a long, sucessful career in F1. Ralph will outperform him, and I just hope he will step up to the challenge...

[Valve Bounce]

Deleted at request of VB

AMoffat

[Blackjack21]

Let’s give Juan the benefit of a doubt and not start judging him on the basis of one race. It is quite clear that he is a talented driver and will get better with each race. He drove an intelligent race and was only kept of the points by mechanical problems over which he had no control. To compare with to Ralf at this time is unfair.

By the way what is an F1 Racer? Are there any of them in Formula 1 today?

[Airhead]

My memory of the walk by interview Jaun had when he retired was of him smiling, looking pleased with himself and stating he was happy with his first GP, given he didn't finish.

He gives the impression of being the harshest judge out there on his own performance. I believe his first year will be more successful than Ralf's was by any measure that can be found. And yes, I know that the Jordan was not as competitive then.

[Valve Bounce]

JPM drove a very controlled intelligent race, as I had hoped he would. I was very disapointed that his car stopped, caused , I believe, by a bad joint in an oil line. As Am pointed out, he posted the fourth fastest time and who knows how he would have ended up. This race told very little about the differences between the cars. The safety car being out for that long put the whole thing out of perspective. We don't know who was on a one stop, and who was on a two stop strategy. So little fuel was used during those slow laps under safety that the two stoppers converted to one stop when they came in for fuel by just toppin hte tank. This point was made by Martin also.

[Liz]

You must remember that it was not Juan Pablo that made all the over-the-top comments about what to expect from him in his first race. He has consistently said "Wait and See." Due to the fact that the producer preferred to show us endless laps of TGF circulating alone, we didn't get to see his drive, but I am told that just before he stopped, he was running a strong fourth. I'd say that was okay for the first race!

As for the "nationality" comment, I would suggest that someone believes that JPM is an American. He's Colombian.

[Speed]

And here is more about his career and "nationality"...

Montoya began karting in 1981 becoming a Champion in the children's division in 1984. Montoya continued winning in karts until 1992 when he competed in Formula Renault in Colombia winning eight races that season.

In 1993 Montoya took seven wins in eight races in the Nationale Tournament Swift GTI Championship.

In 1995 the Colombian finished third in the British Formula Vauxhall Championship and in 1996 was fourth in the Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort (Holland). Montoya won two races in the British Formula Three Championship that season.

In 1997 Montoya claimed second place in the FIA International F3000 Championship and tested for the Williams Formula One team. 1998 saw the Colombian win the F3000 Championship before he moved to America to race in the CART series with Target Chip Ganassi Racing.

1999 saw Montoya win the CART Championship with seven wins - he was the youngest champion in the history of the series.

2000 saw him finish 9th in the CART series and win the Indy 500.

For 2001 Montoya signed a contract to compete in Formula One with the BMW WilliamsF1 team.

[Sharky]

The story about his passing trough the national Forumla Renault category is very interesting indeed Liz. When his dad was looking for a drive for his son Juan was only 16. When he landed a drive all the senior drivers in the country complained to the organizers for letting a 16 year oild kid with little experience and no drivers licence to drive in what was to be the top racing categorie over here. The first race came and he got both the pole and the win....as you can imagine......nobody complained ever again (more or less the same thing With Kimi).

As for the race, I heard an interview on PSN during the warup in which montoya said that he would use his CARt experience to save up fuel and when everyone started to pit he would take advantage of the superior performance of the michelin tyres as they're wearing out to make very fast laps and gain some places. And that's just what he did, he stayed about a second or so behind heidfeld and as he pitted he started to run very fast (I know because in PSN they were following every one of his laps very closely). Montoya was already close to panis before panis pitted and the last lap before the engince blew up (due to a damaged oil line) he did a 1:29 lap which, as someone mentioned earlier, was the 4th fastest lap. So according to my calculations if his engine hadn't blown up he would have ended up in fourth after his pit stop (regardless of what happened with panis after the race). So if you take into account his strategy for the race you can see that not only was he doing what he planned but also did a hell of a job.

And regarding his nationality. I'm a colombian and I certanly don't see how you can consider this nationality to be an advantage for pursuing a racing career. I love myu country but.....well.......i'll just say one thing. Many of you will be very suprised to know that in all the country there is only one race track. That's right only one and I'm not saying that theres one top class track and others that dont count. I'm saying that including all the racing tracks in the contry regardless of their state there's only one (1). There are several karting tracks though but I would like to know how growing up in a country with Just one race track could be an advantage for a racing career.

[kuchi]

I think you were trying to say, that being Colombian is good enough to judge Montoya´s driving. So, why, I mean becasue we colombians have a bad international image or what. Wee you trying to say that because he is colombian he might turn to be a drug dealer or what, because...sorry if I´m being a little defensive but everytime you mention his nationality, you put it like if it´s bad to be born here. No matter if he´s colombian or french, he´s got the skills and that´s all that counts, so stop being such a facsist ok???.