14/08/2006
NEWS STORY
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Just one month after being dropped by McLaren, a move which followed the shock news that he was heading to NASCAR in 2007, Juan Pablo Montoya has admitted that one of the reasons he walked away from F1 was because he was bored. Talking to Colombian journalist Yamid Amat of El Tiempo, Montoya also reveals that his relationship with team boss Ron Dennis had sunk to an all-time low.
"I decided to leave before starting to curse it," admits the Colombian. "I left because of boredom, I wasn't enjoying the races. I had already done all that I had to do and had almost completed all the goals that I set.
"I only lacked a championship and I realized that the possibility to achieve it was minimum," he continues. "To leave was the best decision that I could have taken."
Asked if the championship was possible, he replies: "Not impossible. I had a chance, but much of it depends on the team that one is with."
"To fight for fifth position is not amusing," he adds. "I wanted a new challenge. That's NASCAR. It's different, fresh. I can run for 10-15 more years. It is another world, it is more relaxed, people are more kind. It is another history..."
Referring to the "boredom" and the comment regarding challenging for fifth, the Colombian said: "The car drove me to boredom. My teammate was also finishing fifth and sixth. We were always finishing in the same place. It wasn't me, it was the car. I had many problems with the car, there were many changes made, there were many flaws..."
Asked about the relationship with Dennis, Montoya says: "I didn't even speak to him. When I left, his lawyer called mine and told him: 'This is what we will do'. It was settled this way: lawyer to lawyer.
I was very bored. One day I called Ron and told him: 'Listen Ron, I want you to know that today we will announce that I'm leaving. I will run in NASCAR with Chip Ganassi and I want you to know it before it becomes public...'"
According to Montoya, the McLaren team boss simply replied "Right". "The conversation didn't last 20 seconds," he adds. "There was nothing else to talk about."
Asked if Dennis made any attempt to dissuade him, Montoya says "No".
Speaking about the decision to let the Colombian go early, ahead of the end of the current F1 season, Montoya says: "They said that they were worried for my concentration because, I already had a contract with NASCAR, my full attention wouldn't be in Formula One. For them it was important to take care and look after their future and that I looked after mine."
Asked if he felt mistreated by the decision, Montoya says: "No. We both said: 'Let's finish this, once and for all'. It is like when your boss doesn't want you. Even if you give it all at work, if they want to sack you, they do. You reach the goals, but if your boss' eyes don't want to see it, they won't see it.
"The relationship with Ron was very well until when I broke my shoulder," he continues, referring to the incident which caused him to miss several races in 2005. "I called him and told him what happened. The English press told another story and they began to laugh at Ron for believing my version. And he thought that I made him look like an idiot before the whole world. From then on, the trust was not the same."
Referring to the team's decision to replace him with Pedro de la Rosa, Montoya says: "That's because he didn't have anybody else. Who else was he going to call?"
"I had these alternatives," he says of the decision to move to NASCAR. "Another possibility in Formula One, Cart racing, go to NASCAR or retiring from motor-racing. One night I called Chip (Ganassi) to say hi. The conversation in English goes more or less like this. He says: 'What else...' I replied 'What else, Ganassi. What are you doing?'. Then he says: 'Oh Montoya, what are you doing?'. And I replied: 'Not much. What are you doing?'. And he told me... 'I'm looking for a driver...' and I told him: 'I'm looking for a drive...' And everything began there. We came to a deal and that was it!"
Having walked away from F1, Montoya admits that he has already lost interest in it: "I already disconnected myself from that world," he admits. "I didn't even watch last weekend's race..."
Would he consider attending an F1 race as a 'fan', one of the races that he won, Brazil for example? "No. What for? Seven or eight hours by plane to go without supporting anyone? Nooo..."
And who will win the 2006 F1 title? "I believe Michael will," says the Colombian, "and if he wins, I believe that he will retire. It is clever for him to do so."
Asked why it would be "clever" to retire, Montoya replies: "Because it could happen to him what I avoided. Michael loves racing and, with everything that he has achieved, he cannot retire losing. He has beaten everybody."
Asked to describe NASCAR, he says: "The technology is zero, the engines are V8, American style with carburettor, not injection. They are steel cars, tubular, huge. One goes inside a cage, in a carbon seat for protection and it has tyres this big.
"The season begins in February and it finishes in November," he continues. "It goes thru 36 weekends of 52 in the year. The race least two hours, the long ones last four and a half hours. The average of Formula One is 1 hour and a half. There are thirty-eight to forty cars... double than in Formula One."
And can he win?
"That is the idea, but I know that it will be hard. One of people in the team that I have been speaking to told me: 'If in the first five races you finish among the first twenty, you would be the best.'"