OCTOBER 24, 2013

Juncadella plays down Williams debut reports

Daniel Juncadella has played down reports that said he has a good chance of lining up on the grid for Williams next year.

Daniel Juncadella has played down reports that said he has a good chance of lining up on the grid for Williams next year.

The Spaniard is racing this year for Grove based Williams' 2014 engine supplier Mercedes in the German touring car series DTM.

And it was rumoured that another link that could pay off for 22-year-old Juncadella, whose uncle is the former HRT boss Luis Perez Sala, is his sponsor deal with the Kazakhstan capital Astana.

TAK Group's Artur Ardavichus said in June: "Astana wants Dani to progress and gain experience with Williams, to prepare him to be a formula one driver with Mercedes."

But Juncadella has now told Speed Week that the Williams story was wide of the mark.

"No. A lot was written about Williams in the Spanish media," he said. "It was wrong.

"If I had EUR 20 million, I could drive in formula one, but that makes no sense to me.

"I want to drive in a championship where my talent and my results are important. That is the case in the DTM," said Juncadella.

"I also want to win races and titles. So while formula one is always the biggest target, in the near future I am only thinking about the DTM," he added.

(GMM)