JPM: we are not Prost/Senna

Juan Pablo Montoya has played down suggestions that his partnership with Kimi Raikkonen could be negative for the McLaren team this season, stating the duo are nothing like former champions Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.

"I think it will be nice," Montoya told The Guardian. "With [former Williams teammate] Ralf [Schumacher], every time he pushed me we managed to get more and more out. I think it will be exciting to get more out of myself, get to the point where I am going to push Kimi and he is going to push me and raise the level of the team.

"I think people forget because they want to make this Raikkonen-Montoya thing going on. But the point is, why are we there? Before we worry about who's going win, we've got to try to beat everybody else, including Michael and Ferrari. My goal and his goal is to beat Ferrari or whoever is at the front.

"I saw Senna and Prost racing for McLaren and it became obvious that they really hated each other. It's not going to be like that between me and Kimi this year because we get on really well and like each other."

Prost and Senna endured a bitter rivalry when they were McLaren teammates in 1988 and 1989.

The sparks from that feud provided some of the most intense and controversial races of the modern era, with Senna even admitting to crashing deliberately into Prost during the Championship-deciding race in Suzuka in 1989.

Montoya has joined McLaren this season from the Williams team, replacing Scot David Coulthard as Raikkonen's teammate.