Juan Pablo Montoya Q&A
At first glance Juan Pablo Montoya appeared to have a pretty good race in Bahrain, but after dropping out of third place with a gearbox problem the Colombian seemed pretty underwhelmed by the whole thing, aware that the Williams team is still far from being in a position to challenge Ferrari. Montoya felt that his tyre choice - different from that of team mate Ralf Schumacher - hadn't paid off, and that had it been hotter on race day he would have been in even worse shape. Adam Cooper heard his views after the race
"Exactly."
"We were going to get a podium again and we broke down, and that was it."
"I could get about the first three - about a quarter of the stint. We were strong, but we knew that most of the Michelin runners' tyres were going to be stronger than mine, so I had to push all day."
"Just before Button passed me - about four or five corners before he passed me. We knew we were going to be very marginal on the gearbox, and we were actually more than marginal."
"The biggest problem is that Ferrari is very consistent, and they can have very good pace in the races, where we don't. In qualifying, over one lap, we are close. But in the race they are miles ahead."
"I don't know. It's a long championship. We'll see. They've been dominant for the last few years, and it doesn't seem that anything is changing yet."
"No. It helped Ferrari, but it helped me as well. I think if it had been hot I would have been completely out of it."
"It's too early to say anything. It's still a year to go before I go there, so I'm not really bothered. Even if they're not performing, maybe for the long term it might be better. It's not a one-year thing. At the moment it doesn't look that good here either. It's comparative. The idea is to win the championship, and we don't seem to be getting any closer to Ferrari."
"Next week I've got off, I'm going to Colombia, but the week after that I'm testing in Ricard. It's more what we can find on tyres."
"No, not at the moment."
"That's what we've got, and that's what we've got to deal with. We're the quickest Michelin runner, clearly. I was quickest today, even with the wrong tyre. From that point of view I'm pretty happy, but we need to do something to get the red cars."
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