Hands off Montoya, McLaren Boss Warns Ganassi

[davewilson]

Written by Adam Cooper


McLaren boss Ron Dennis has made it very clear that Juan Pablo Montoya will not be able to drive a Dodge Nextel Cup car for Chip Ganassi until the end of his contract at the end of the year – unless a financial deal of some kind is made in the interim. There is a Daimler Chrysler link between the two camps, but that does not seem to have helped smooth the waters.

“He is a contracted McLaren driver and it will stay that way until the end of his contract unless there is some other commercial arrangement between ourselves and the NASCAR team, or Juan himself,” Dennis said Friday at boss Ron Dennis has made it very clear that Juan Pablo Montoya will not be able to drive a Dodge Nextel Cup car for Chip Ganassi until the end of his contract at the end of the year – unless a financial deal of some kind is made in the interim. There is a DaimlerChrysler link between the two camps, but that does not seem to have helped smooth the waters.

“He is a contracted McLaren driver and it will stay that way until the end of his contract unless there is some other commercial arrangement between ourselves and the NASCAR team, or Juan himself,” Dennis said Friday at the french Grannd Prix
He added that Montoya would not be allowed to test for Ganassi this year, and that the contract extended beyond the end of the racing season. “There is a conflict of sponsors, advertising campaigns and a whole raft or reasons why that is not a practical proposition.”

Dennis added that it was not impossible that Montoya could return to a McLaren cockpit this year, although most observers think that is unlikely.

“Juan Pablo is fully contracted through to the end of the year, and if we so choose, he will test and race again, so that is at our option, nobody else’s. There is plenty in the press that differs with that fact.”

He also clarified exactly how JPM came to be replaced by Pedro de la Rosa with immediate effect.

“The way that it unfolded: clearly Juan Pablo has struggled at times and I feel that the team has always been totally supportive of him and continues to be supportive of Juan Pablo. You might find that difficult to believe in the circumstances, but we are.

“A few races ago, we had a conversation that was based on his desire to continue with McLaren, his desire to stay in Formula 1 and we came to the clear understanding that it was immaterial whether his objective was to stay in Formula 1 and whether the team would keep him, or whether he would go to another team.

“The objective, the best way to achieve that was to have the best results over the latter part of the season and that’s the way we move forward and I felt that if he was focused on having the best end of season, then a) to use my exact words, it would be easier for me to take a decision in the team, or b) that it would be easier and better for him… he would get better offer, so the common objective was ‘let’s get the best out of the balance of the season.’

“Obviously, that objective was somewhat changed when he decided that in 2007 he would race in NASCAR, so then our objectives became different, I think. The appropriate course of action for the team was to let the whole thing cool off and let him sit and think about the circumstances that surrounded his involvement in the team until we had a very common objective for the remaining races.”

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/nascar/28622/
The Stig