Martin Whitmarsh rues Montoya's exit

By Natasha Jay
November 13 2006

The sudden abrupt end to Juan Pablo Montoya's Formula One career had a disruptive influence to the Woking Team. At least that is the verdict of Mclaren's chief executive, Martin Whitmarsh.

The sudden abrupt end to Juan Pablo Montoya's Formula One career had a disruptive influence to the Woking Team.

At least that is the verdict of Mclaren's chief executive, Martin Whitmarsh.

The 'benching' of Juan Pablo Montoya after the Indianapolis grand prix had a negative effect on the Woking team, Whitmarsh called it a ''disruption''.

The benching of Juan Pablo came days after both Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh denied press speculation that Juan Montoya would be replaced by fellow test driver Pedro De la Rosa.

Martin Whitmarsh told Speed TV that "We can try and apportion blame and responsibility there, but it didn't work out.

"Whether it was 90 per cent his fault and 10 per cent ours or vice versa - he didn't really blend in.

"He didn't really blend in at Williams either, but we hoped we could achieve more with Juan than we did."

So as JPM prepares to make his Nextel Cup debut next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Mclaren are preparing life without Montoya in 2007.