Montoya Confident of Winning Start in Australia

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya is confident of his chances of winning Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, the first race of the 2004 season.

"In the last few weeks I've often been asked if we can win in Australia? Well, the answer is a definitive yes, we can win from the start," Montoya told Gazzetta dello Sport. "We come from a very good winter, with a car that was fast from the beginning, contrary to what happened last year.

"The two months we had to develop the FW26 allowed us to make important improvements. The team worked hard and the results are there to see."

The Williams driver, who will leave for McLaren at the end of 2004, finished in third position in last year's Drivers' Championship, behind Ferrari rival Michael Schumacher and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen.

Montoya, who starts the season as one of the favourites after showing impressive pace in pre-season testing, believes World Champion Schumacher and his Ferrari team will still be the men to beat, although he reckons the German can be defeated.

"Michael is a great driver: what he's won speaks for itself," the Colombian said. "But in the end he's human too, and as such he can be beaten. And that's what I'll try to do this year. I've matured and I finally have a car that should enable me to do it.

"I expected that the new Ferrari would be fast; I would have been surprised of the contrary. Anyway, it wasn't as fast as many have said: the weather conditions in Imola were too special to be able to express absolute judgement.

"However, Ferrari remains the team to beat. But us and McLaren, who have gone back and forth from records to problems, will be breathing down their necks."