Dennis confident of JPM success

Montoya has always been stocky as opposed to wafer-thin, but some of the Williams guys, who had taken to nicknaming him 'Burger King' are upset at losing him to McLaren because, they say, he'll have to be known as 'Big Mac' from now on.

All this, we stress, is good-humoured banter, but there has been enough of it to prompt ITV's James Allen to ask McLaren boss Ron Dennis how he intends to keep Montoya off the burgers and whether he is alarmed.

Dennis did not address the burger issue directly, but is convinced that McLaren can get more out of Montoya than has currently been extracted.

"We recently had our very first conversation with him regarding next year and I think it's very clear to us that Juan Pablo is very receptive to our thinking and to our advice," he said. "We don't tell drivers what to do, we try to give them a thorough understanding before asking them to change or pointing out that it could be in their interests. They can then decide whether adopting our suggestions will make them a better racing driver or not.

"I am firmly of the belief, as is Norbert (Haug), that it will be an equal environment in which he will find himself as we try to get the best out of him, which, I feel, is yet to come."