Raikkonen relieved Ide is replaced

The Formula One newcomers have replaced struggling Japanese rookie Ide with France's Franck Montagny on advice from the sport's governing body.

Montagny, a former Renault test driver, will make his race debut in Sunday's European Grand Prix as the first Frenchman on the starting grid since Toyota's Olivier Panis retired in 2004.

Ide, 31, will not take up Montagny's role as third driver, and the team said he would only be doing normal testing.

"He will not be a third driver, just a tester," said a spokeswoman.

The team had planned to run a third car in Friday practice, with Montagny signed to drive it, but will not now do so at the Nurburgring.

Ide's Formula One career has been troubled from the start.

At the last race at Imola, he was reprimanded by the stewards for causing a spectacular accident that sent Midland's Dutch driver Christijan Albers barrel-rolling into the gravel on the opening lap.

He also hit a mechanic at a pitstop in the Bahrain season-opener. Several teams and drivers have voiced safety concerns about his driving and the reaction on Thursday was equally unflattering.

"In Monaco it could have been a bit disastrous," Raikkonen told reporters. "He's a nice guy but he was quite slow and then he was spinning quite often so you never knew if he was going to spin in front of you when you were close to him."

"Without judging Ide's driving, I don't think it will change a lot if he does more testing," said BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld.

"Sometimes he has really different lines to us. Maybe that's because they drive on the other side in Japan," added Red Bull's Austrian Christian Klien.

Ide, a runner-up in last year's Formula Nippon championship, had barely any testing under his belt and was never at ease in an uncompetitive car derived from a four-year-old Arrows