Juan Pablo Montoya will leave McLaren at the end of 2006.
Unlike current teammate Kimi Raikkonen, however, the feisty Colombian – once the toast of American open-wheel racing and then hot F1 property – is not spoiled for choice in terms of an alternate ride for next year.
After quitting Williams following a team argument, 30-year-old Montoya has not impressed in his two years at the silver camp.
”Only a sequence of wins will save him,” a McLaren team member anonymously told ‘Auto Motor Und Sport’ in Germany.
Also ominously, the earlier interest of Red Bull appears to have waned since Dietrich Mateschitz’s friend and business partner, Gerhard Berger, warned him off.
With a few relationships mended, then, could a return to Williams be an option for Montoya? First as a test driver in 1997, team chief Sir Frank Williams introduced the extravagant racer to F1.
Williams, 64, was quoted as saying: ”Juan is a great racer.”
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