Montoya

[Raceace]

Is JPM as good as he is made out to be? Can some of you Americans out there tell me, is what Montoya has done in Champcars really that spectacular? Don't get me wrong I think the guy will bring a lot to F1 - hopefully a Williams revival. I just want to know if he has been overhyped?

[Tris]

Yes he is as good as he is made out to be. No he is not over-hyped. Any body who saw any in car footage form any of the Champ car races will tell you. Montoya is amazing. If he can up his work rate we could be talking about him and Senna in the same breath. (I have followed him since his F3000 days. ) i have not been as impressed with a driver since Alesi.... oh bugger!

[kuchi]

I agree with Tris, as a fellow colombian, I know him for a long time, but we(colombians)were not interested on him until he tested for williams. He has dine great things in his short carrer. You must see him on F3000, he was just awesome, if I'm not wrong he even laped the whole field in a race, and what he did at CART, well it was surprising. All those wins and poles, unbelieveable. I still remember his pole at '99 Detroit race, oh it was fantastic, kissing the wall and breaking records. This year I think most of us have great expectations with him, but we will be satisfied to see him there, at the grid.

[Jay]

He was indeed something in Champ cars. If not for his bad attitude off the track, more for his actions on the track. You could watch all of the drivers go through a corner and Juan would usually be the one most out on the ragged edge. He didn't mind going through corners sideways. However he also had a tendancy to give up when his car was not handling the way he wanted it too, and would make costly mistakes. He should have had the 1999 Championship wrapped up a lot earlier had not been for several costly mistakes.

Was he overated? A definate yes. People were saying that he was the next Senna, and that he was the best driver in the world.

Now, I am not saying that he won't have some success in F1, but he is hardly a second coming.

[senna12]

I also think Juan will be impressive in F1. He definitely had the quickest hands in Champ cars the last couple of years. Even with Toyota's unreliability, he still managed to lead the most laps last year. I think his non-chalance about his retirements last year was partly due to the fact that he knew early on in the year that he was gone at the end of it. It kind of made him a little more philisophical when his machinery broke down, if thats the right way to put it. But I remember the ABC broadcast crew, notably Paul Page, say that Montoya had the "pure Formula 1 mentality", and was more suited to F1 than CART anyway. You will find most North American race fans are very high on this boy, having watched him win race after race the past couple of years. No offence to Ralf, who is a fine driver, but he is in for a surprise this year, I think.

[KC]

Montoya is very good, probably one of the purest talents I have seen on TV and live on the track. i think he will prove the better than MS with a fully loaded car and better when the tires are gone off. He will be amazing in the wet as well. Having said all that I will honestly be surpirsed if he takes a win for Williams this year. The team has proven that they are only capable of constructing one reliable car at a time and either RS or JM will be in the one that sucks.

[bella]

believe the hype. he's pretty good.

[Speed]

"This guy" won more races than any other rookie at CART Series.

"This guy" took the Indianapolis 500 as a rookie.

"This guy" won the 1999 CART championship as a rookie also.


I think "This guy" will kick some butts as a rookie at F1, No kidding.

Just ask Andretti or Franchitti...

[BD]

I have to agree that Montoya is worth the hype. But I have to disagree with Jay that he gives up.
In a post qualifying interview he said his car was understeering badly. The interviewer asked if that was the reason for him going onto the grass on his hot lap. He said the understeer made the car slow, so he had to push harder which caused him to go off.
I think coments like this show his mentality. He is very brave and will push the envelope to extract the most from his car. I've never seen him "give up". He tries very hard with what he has. Its the car that usually gave up on him.
He'll definetly be a contender once he has acquired the necessary experience.

[Jay]

Remember Mid-Ohio. An ill-handling car is no excuse to give up, go off of the track or crash. Plenty of drivers have managed to deal with an ill handling car. They may not be on the pole, but most good drivers can at least finish reasonably with a bad setup.

[Neil C]

Originally posted by Jay
An ill-handling car is no excuse to give up, go off of the track or crash.

Maybe no excuse to give up, (unless creating a safety hazard), but if you think ill-handling cars do not cause go-offs and crashes, you need to drive one once.

If you are trying to say that Montoya tends to give less than his best when things are not going well, then you may have a case.

[DNQ]

I think he will be fast in F1, because, unlike Zanardi, he was brought up into CART through the European circuit - that is F3000, and tested for Williams - only two years ago. So he will still be familiar with the cars.

I await March 4th with anticipation to see how he does.

Scott

[Airhead]

I think Jaun will do better than Zanardi as he is as yet untarnished by failure at the top level - where the teeth and claws abound -he will also do better than Ralf (sorry Ralf's Girl)- Ralf spent his formative years with Jordan in the gravel trap. He is now figuring out who to blame for that! See F1 Live.

Jenson was young, green, inexperienced and still did better than Ralf in his first year (I mean in comparison to Ralf's 1st year). He at least stayed on the track!

Now Ralf has real competition watch out.

[yorkie]

DNQ Alex Zanardi did graduate via the European circiut. He also raced F1 before going to CART. The main difference is that F1 cars have changed significantly between Zanardi's first F1 outings and the F1 outings in '99. Montoya has had reecent testing experience so he should be used to the cars.

[Tris]

Let us not forget that Zanardi was beaten and beaten well by herbert during his tenure at Lotus.

[Omar]

Yes, "Little Juan" is a very impressive dude. During his short tenure in Champcars I had the pleasure of seeing him 'in the flesh' four times, 2 years at Milwaukee and 2 years at Road America. I will always remember him holding off the field with a broken gearbox at RA. Amazing, especially at Road America. My gut tells me he will do very well in F1, but, my gut has been wrong before (Zanardi, Andretti)
Time will tell........

[TRD]

Montoya will do well because he can quickly adapt to the situation. That's a top quality in a great driver right? Who cares if Zanardi hasn't been in an F1 car for so many years, and the grooved tyres, narrower cars, etc. If he was a really good driver he would have quickly adapted to the situation. Michael Andretti too, he drove his McLaren like it was an Indycar. We can expect to see great things from JPM this year.

[tazzoid]

I'm very neutral on this one, not even the LEAST bit miffed that he replaced Butsie at Willimas (ahem...), but from what I've seen in the last 2 days at Kyalami, he's got a little way to go. Maybe it's because I've only got Ralf and the unidentified BAR driver (I think it's Jacques) to compare him to, and Ralf looks like he's on rails, and Jacques... well, he's an ex-champion isn't he? But he keeps... wiggling. And then he spun off on the fastest part of the circuit, got out and scaratched his head before undressing. It kinda made me think of what Butsie said, about him looking "shaken" when he came back in. Hehehe... shame. I wish him all the best - looks like he'll need it.

[Speed]

The one from BAR is Panis.
JPM had mechanical and clutch problems.
Later, some balance problems, and then the crash.

[Craig]

YES!

[tazzoid]

Jeez, sorry.

He looked a ton better today, had a couple of smooth pit-stops too. That isn't Villeneuve's helmet, it's missing the flag.