07/08/2006
FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
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Some thoughts have struck me about the sudden departure of Juan Pablo Montoya from Formula One. One is that Ron Dennis knew exactly what sort of man he was hiring. It was Sir Frank who took the initial risk.
Ron had seen JPM race in F1 since 2001. He had seen Juan Pablo in the paddock and pitlane and at functions. If there was a rumour about Montoya, Ron knew about it. When Montoya tested for McLaren, Ron knew where he braked, where he turned in, how many revs he was using, the lot. No longer is there any mystery surrounding a driver except for the essential, human, mystery of personal chemistry. I cannot understand how things could go so wrong.
It was clear that Juan Pablo was not going to get a top drive in 2007. Things were set in motion a year ago when McLaren signed Alonso. It is rare that a deal is done so far in advance and even more rare that it is made public. Some drivers would have reacted by upping their game, others need nurturing and normally Ron is pretty good at this, he has an amazing record of loyalty to drivers.
Montoya is not the first driver to have to consider going to a lesser team. At the end of 1983 there was a contract at McLaren waiting John Watson, but Wattie and his manager were sticking out for more money. Then Alain Prost was sacked by Renault and John had not signed. I knew Wattie pretty well and he had offers from Lotus and Toleman. He didn't want to go to Lotus because they were on Pirelli tyres (a day or so after his time for signing ran out, Lotus switched to Goodyear). Toleman was a new team and Wattie did not want to go into the business of building a junior team so he went into sports cars, and won races.
Juan Pablo could possibly have gained a seat with a lesser F1 team and that is not always a bad thing. In my eyes, David Coulthard has grown in stature by his performances with Red Bull, his drive in Hungary was remarkable. JPM decided that he would leave F1, it's his life and his career. There have been many drivers who have been in a similar position, but who have seen out their contracts before making the transition to CART, IRL, sports cars, whatever. The thing is that I cannot recall a driver being dropped because he was going to move to another series.
That did not happen with Michael Andretti at McLaren in 1993. Michael did not take to F1 and the split was best for all concerned. He then went on to give Reynard a debut win in CART and to take a further 14 wins. Michael was still a winner in a top series, but that series was not Formula One.
I believe that JPM has not actually been fired, but he has been transferred to other duties, or something like that, there are contracts involved.
Following on JPM's departure came the news came that Jacques Villeneuve was not going to race in Hungary. At the time of writing there is nothing but confusion, as you expect when a major manufacturer is involved.
Jacques was signed by Peter Sauber, who has one of the shrewdest brains in racing. Sauber sold his team to BMW and Jacques's contract was part of the package. Robert Kubica has been quick in testing and has looked a very good prospect. Kubica is Polish and, like Hungary, Poland is a former, unwilling, member of the Soviet Bloc. East of the Danube there is a growing market for BMW cars and a having a driver from the former Eastern Bloc has repercussions far beyond Poland.
After my last piece, I received mail from John Raisbeck, of 'Flightspares', in New England. John reckoned that a deal had been done for Jacques to race in one of the NASCAR series in 2007. He had good information, chapter and verse, and he reckoned that NASCAR was hungry for a Canadian star and if that Canadian was French Canadian, that would be a bonus.
I am not one for conspiracy theories, though just because you're paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you. I look at JPM and JV and I wonder not that they are leaving F1, there is no longer a place for either, but where they are going to. A handful of Formula One drivers have done a handful of NASCAR races, but two drivers decide that is where their future lies and neither was on the grid in Hungary.
Bernie is fond of telling us that F1 is second only to the World Cup and Olympic Games in terms of viewing fugues. In the UK, F1 is broadcast by ITV 1 which is one of the two main terrestrial channels. Come the World Cup and England reached the last sixteen so there was a general shuffling of timetables to accommodate the match. We had a choice, we could listen to vacuous commentary on BBC 1 or vacuous commentary on ITV 1.
England versus Ecuador over lapped the Canadian GP. ITV 1, which pays millions to cover F1, decided that F1 is so unimportant that it shifted the Canadian GP to a digital channel. It was a free to view channel, sure, but not everyone has a digital receiver and there are parts of the country where reception is problematical.
ITV had out bid the BBC in order to broadcast F1 and all it could hope by covering the England game was to share the viewers with the BBC and a game against Ecuador was never going to be a great draw. No only did ITV 1 decide that Formula One was less important than 'shadow' coverage of a football game, but it could not even decide in advance on which digital channel the Canadian GP would be shown. Depending on which TV guide you read, the Canadian GP could have been anywhere.
In the event, you had to channel hop to find it. It was tucked away on a digital channel which normally does not broadcast at that time of day.
Did you notice something about the TV coverage at the US GP? This year the camera angles were different. In years gone by, television has shown the packed grandstands, especially on the start/finish straight. The crowd has always been thin in the bleachers, where the seats are a long way from the action, but the seats along the straight, in the shade, have been full.
A couple of times during the coverage of the race, a rogue shot showed the huge swathes of unoccupied seats. Of those seats which were occupied, it would be interesting to know how many were so much paper.
In Britain, and some other English speaking countries, the commentary is provided by ITV, The main commentator, James Allen, felt it incumbent upon himself to tell us what an amazing crowd there was, when we could see that was patently untrue. I rather got the impression that an official line was being toed.
Given the odd glimpse of the amazingly large crowd, for once in my life I felt sorry for the ticket touts, 'scalpers' in the States, I bet their children were wondering when they would next see meat on the table.
I suspect that if you need grandstand tickets for next year's Indianapolis 500, or the (NASCAR) Indianapolis 400, and have not already bought them, then the children of some scalper will have a better Christmas.
Juan Pablo will be in the Indianapolis 400, and Jacques could be there as well. Unlike the US GP, the whole stadium will be packed. It will be the same at Talladega and everywhere where the main NASCAR series are promoted. You won't find me sneering about this form of racing. I have been to the museum at Talladega and I want to go back when there is racing, and I want to sit in the stands.
This form of racing has long been promoted with brilliance. It is in touch with its fans, it attracts major sponsors, it generates massive TV revenue.
Juan Pablo will be good for NASCAR, because he will arrive as a Grand Prix winner. and he is Hispanic. Given the number of Hispanic citizens in the USA, this has to be a plus. The fact that Jacques Villeneuve is not just Canadian, but French Canadian, has to be a bonus as well. There are actually fewer people in Canada than there are Hispanics in NASCAR's core country, but Jacques is a World Champion.
I have the suspicion that if had Montoya announced an IRL or Champ Car deal for 2007, it would have caused scarcely a ripple; drivers have done that for years. I have this nagging feeling, however, that his being dropped by McLaren is punishment for announcing that he is going to a really successful series. This feeling was reinforced by the dropping of Jacques when it became apparent that he, too, was off to the Deep South.
When John Surtees parted from Ferrari in 1966, he continued to race in Formula One, indeed, he won a race for Cooper that year. John moved from one team to another, he was not dropped from the equation. JPM announces that he is going to a successful series, next year, and he is out of F1. JV is going to do the same, and he is suddenly too unwell to drive.
For more than a quarter of a century people in F1 have laughed at CART/Champ Car. The emergence of the Indy Racing League, more than ten years ago, weakened open wheel racing in the States. Nothing, however, has dented the appeal of NASCAR. It is not 'pure' racing, in the way F1 is 'pure', barring the endless disputes, but it is comprehensible to the guy taking his wife and kids for a good day out. You may be able to start a race with six runners in F1, but you cannot do that in Alabama.
Only two drivers in more than 100 years of motor racing have indicated that they intend to leave Grand Prix racing to compete full time in NASCAR and both were absent in Hungary. A Grand Prix winner and a World Champion were thinking along similar lines and were dropped. I wonder how far coincidence can be stretched.
I am very glad that I do not believe in conspiracy theories otherwise my brain might now be hurting.
Mike Lawrence
mike@pitpass.com
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