Ecclestone sad to see Montoya leave F1

Montoya has been stood down by McLaren after signing a long-term deal with Chip Ganassi Racing in NASCAR. He will not be allowed to start his new career until his current contract comes to an end later this year, though.

Speaking to autosport.com about Montoya's decision, Ecclestone said that he was resigned about the defection - even though he would have preferred the fiery Colombian to remain in F1.

"I would rather he didn't go, but what can you do?" he explained. "He obviously wasn't going to stay at McLaren, and because of that I don't think he would get a drive anywhere else. So I suppose that was his alternative."

Ecclestone hopes that Montoya makes a success of his new career in the United States - especially because the competition on track can be very intense.

"I hope he does star, and I hope he doesn't go there and get buried," explained Ecclestone. "These guys are all tough guys, and they get on with the programme."

Although Montoya had his critics in the paddock, many believe that the sport will be worse off for losing him.

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn, who has criticised Montoya in the past for some of his aggressive overtaking attempts, suggested that even his wrongdoings were an attraction.

"I think we will quite miss someone to be critical of in the future," he smiled. "He was a character and it doesn't pay for everyone to be perfect in F1 - which is a sort of backhanded compliment, I guess.

"It will be interesting to see how he gets on. NASCAR is a completely different culture, completely different type of racing and getting quite technical now from what I understand, so for the engineers involved it is getting quite interesting.

"But I think it is one of those fields of racing that you have to become one of the boys or otherwise you get squeezed out and won't achieve anything.

"I know one or two people have entered NASCAR with the wrong approach, and they can very easily get together and make sure you don't succeed.

"I think if Juan Pablo approaches it with the right attitude, he has got huge skill so he should do quite well."