Off topic… Yes, my understanding is that Alonso was coming in because Räikkönen was leaving, having signed with Ferrari for 2007. However, it is also my belief that Montoya was unaware of Räikkönen's impending exit at the time that he learned of the Alonso deal; and that he may have thought Alonso was coming in to replace himself*, rather than Räikkönen ! That is why I concluded at the time (perhaps wrongly but I still believe it to be the case), that JPM's passionate, perhaps reactionary waving goodbye to the whole circus, was premature and made without full knowledge of the facts. He thought he'd been shafted (because I believe things had not been explained to him) by the one person who stood firm against the axis – but he hadn't! It's just the way Ron Dennis plays his cards. He's always been like that and it was nothing against JPM, although I think JPM saw this differently – which forms the whole basis for my conjecture. *Adding weight to my 'wrong conclusion' idea, I believe Montoya's contract was up to the end of 2006, and that with a contract still unsigned for 2007, he very easily mistook Alonso's impending arrival as compounding evidence for his own exit. I do not believe that Hamilton had been seriously considered at this early time, but that this was at least in part precipitated by JPM's decision to leave! Therefore, I believe the most likely McLaren line-up for 2007 was Montoya and Alonso.
Montoya Alonso probably would have won in 07 with Montoya as back up, although obviously I would have wanted Montoya to win. He should have won in 2003
If Montoya ever won the champ back then, he'd still be going on about it now and how great he was. I think he'd beat Gordon Ramsey in a ****ing swearing match too!
I love Montoya in Nascar, His radio calls are usually a laugh, especially if someone hits him. Of course, none will ever top the deer incident.
oh dear we are badly off topic now thanks guys. I'm a bit surprised at the general negative response about the chromes. You may think me biased being a McLaren fan but I genuinely think from an aesthetic point of view the chrome McLarens are second only to the black and white West McLarens. The 2006 and 2009 are not my favourite, other than that its hard to pick a winner. For the 2007/8 cars I love the low wide and non chipped up wings that the 09-12 cars have every day of the week. Wing win for the 07/08 cars. I also and I know I'm in the minority, love the winglet devices on the 07/08 cars especially the hornlets http://images.gpupdate.net/large/106398.jpg like an aiming scope on a gun! Aero device win for the 07/08 cars. However the 09-12 cars have the slick tyres. The 11-12 cars all have a brilliant feature to them as well. The 2010 had the shark fin/F-Duct feature which made the car look really strong - like a tank in the F1 world. The U pods on the 2011 car combined with the split up air box makes it a potential winner for me. And the 2012 car just looks so neat and elegant that its up there too. Yeah the 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 cars are too good for me to pick a winner.
By the way I don't know If any of you clicked the links I put, if you did, did you expect them all the be Hamilton shots?
I personally love the 2011 car. That Jenson in Hungary shot in particular selling it. A very agressive looking car.
Personally I would LOVE if Ferrari spent a season with Yellow bodywork. And at the same time McLaren decided to go back to orange. My favourite looking (and sounding) McLaren was actually the black and grey West 2000 MP4-15.
