Da Matta Leans on Montoya for Advice

Toyota's Brazilian driver Cristiano da Matta has sought advice from former CART champion Juan Pablo Montoya as he wrestles with the transition to Formula One this year.

Da Matta won last year's CART championship before joining Toyota alongside France's 125-race veteran Olivier Panis for the 2003 Formula One season which starts in Melbourne on March 9. Colombia's Montoya, 27, won the 1999 CART championship and switched to the Williams Formula One team in 2001, finishing sixth overall including a win at Monza.

He was third last year with 50 points and seven poles.

"In CART, I was going into every race thinking I could win the race, or fight for the win," da Matta said in Melbourne on Tuesday. "Here I think now maybe if I get a podium position it would be more than a race win for me personally. The horsepower is similar. The handling is completely different.

"This car is 600 kilos with the driver, the (CART racing) car weighs 800 kilos with the driver so it's a big difference, 25 percent in weight."

The 29-year-old said when he started test driving with Toyota he was one second off the pace and felt he was pushing the car to the limit. Montoya's improvement from sixth overall to third in one year with Williams was an example of how improvement came over a two-year period, da Matta said.

"It's quick to get to 95 percent, and then I think it takes a little bit more to take it to 100 percent," he said.

Sought Advice

Da Matta said he had sought advice from Montoya.

"We will be exchanging a lot of information but not much about driving because... the difficulties that I have are all unknown to him because he has been doing that for so long," da Matta said. "On the low-speed corners I (need more) finesse. I'm sure when I get the low-speed corners right I'm going to be going very fast.

"The Formula One is a more fragile car... It's more important to be very smooth and gentle with the car."

Toyota finished 10th in the Constructors' Championship last year with two points in their debut season.

Team principal of Cologne-based Toyota Ove Andersson has said they are aiming for at least a point (eighth place) in each race this year. The 36-year-old Panis, the only Frenchman on the grid and the oldest driver in Formula One this year, said he was relaxed about his role with Toyota.

"The new car is much much quicker in general everywhere compared with the last year one of Toyota," the former Ligier and Prost driver said. "Now we need to wait and see exactly where we are after this (first) Grand Prix."

Asked about the pressure of being Toyota's senior driver, Panis said: "I don't say I don't care but I'm really confident about what I need to do with the Toyota team."