Juan Pablo Montoya sympathises with Alonso plight

Former Formula 1 ace Juan Pablo Montoya says he has sympathy for Fernando Alonso's current plight at his own former team, McLaren.

It emerged this week that Alonso is not on speaking terms with McLaren boss Ron Dennis and is not expected to stay with the team beyond the end of 2007.

But Montoya, who quit F1 for NASCAR midway through last season after a tempestuous 18-month relationship with the team, said in an interview with the Associated Press that he "felt sorry for Alonso" once it became clear that Lewis Hamilton would be his team-mate this year.

"Fernando is a nice guy, but he was the No. 1 at Renault and he was used to winning and getting everything," he said.

"Then he went to McLaren, and when [wife] Connie and I heard that Lewis was going to be his team-mate, we said 'Oh my God.'

"We immediately felt sorry for Fernando because Lewis is Ron's baby. Ron paid his whole career, so Ron wants him to win and not Fernando.

"He would rather see Lewis win, who is like his own child to Ron. Fernando is nothing to him."

When Montoya joined Kimi Raikkonen at McLaren at the beginning of 2005, it was considered F1's dream team.

It turned sour for the Woking squad when the disenchanted Colombian quit after the 2006 US GP.

Raikkonen's move to Ferrari followed at the end of the season amid rumours that his relationship with Dennis had become strained.

"Ron, outside the work environment, is a great guy," said Montoya.

"But he's two different guys. The guy who I signed with and played golf with, he just didn't exist in the office. He was just a different person, you wouldn't even recognise him.

"He wants to control everything, and I think Fernando is angry about that because he is not used to someone controlling everything and did not like that Ron was like that.

"I think Ron is used to drivers who don't say anything back.

"He thought he was going to come in and be No. 1, and he's just not," he added.

"They try to make them be equal, but Lewis is genuinely a really fast driver. And apart from being really fast, he's Ron's favorite. It's just the truth, and it makes it bad for Fernando."

Montoya also revealed that he wasn't in the least bit surprised to see the spy scandal break and said that information exchange goes on all the time in the sport.

"It's just how Formula 1 is," he said.

"Teams are allowed to bend the rules too much. That's just my personal opinion, but I always felt like people bent the rules and that some teams were allowed to bend the rules more than others.

"But this? This is crossing the line.

"I was surprised by the fine. It was a little high. But I gotta say, I was surprised that since they were taking points, they should have taken the driver points, as well.

"That is crazy, you know, because they took the constructor points but the drivers gained from the knowledge. So if you are going to do it, do it properly."

Source: itv-f1