Montoya to Get Help from Dernie

Juan Pablo Montoya has been given a boost ahead of this weekend's British Grand Prix after he revealed today that his Williams-BMW team will assign experienced engineer Frank Dernie as a second race engineer on his car.

His teammate Ralf Schumacher has benefited from two race engineers since the early part of last year, when the team moved several men across to his team after he struggled in the opening few races of the year.

Colombian Montoya, who has finished second to Schumacher in the last two races, believes the extra mind will help him fine tune his car to get back on a level with his German rival.

"Two heads are better than one," said Montoya. "We are going to put Frank Dernie to work alongside my engineer and he is going to be listening out to my team. If he has got any ideas they are welcome."

Montoya revealed he had asked the team Operations Engineer Sam Michael for extra help at the French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours two weekends ago but it took time to make the structural changes.

Montoya is aiming to decrease the six-point gap between himself and Schumacher, and the 17-point deficit to Ferrari-driving Championship leader Michael Schumacher.

"I mentioned it to Sam and I said 'look, I think I need more help to develop the car a bit more'," said Montoya. "The car is pretty well set-up but it is just fine-tuning.

"Ralf has got two engineers - he has got my old engineer. Now I have Frank and we will see how it works. I worked with Frank in America when he was with Lola and he was really good so it should be pretty good."

Dernie, who was already at Williams in a different capacity, spent time working with Montoya at the Ganassi team during the Colombian's second season in the United States CART championship prior to his move into Formula One.