AUGUST 12, 2003

Montoya and McLaren

Cambio, the Colombian equivalent of Time magazine, which is owned by the Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is reporting that Juan Pablo Montoya has already signed a contract with McLaren-Mercedes and will move to the Woking team in 2005.

The magazine is sufficiently confident of the Montoya story that it leaves no hint of doubt.

"The contacts between the Colombian driver and Ron Dennis's team have been going on for some time," the articles claims, "but were concluded at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone."

The article says that Montoya is currently being paid only $3.5m and is not happy that his team mate Ralf Schumacher is getting $12m. According to the story Montoya will earn three times his Williams salary when he joins McLaren. The story cites the renewal of the BMW-Williams deal as another reason for Montoya to leave Williams as he feels that BMW will support Ralf Schumacher more than another driver. The article also suggests that the relationship between Ralf and Montoya is more than strained.

Although one has to be careful of such stories, the cambio.com.co story has a ring of truth to it and clearly comes from sources close to Montoya. The Colombian driver has been in Bogota in recent days.