Theissen knows Montoya is very motivated

According to BMW Motorsport Director Dr Mario Theissen Juan Pablo Montoya, despite his recent announcement that he is moving to McLaren in 2005, has not lost any of his desire to secure the Drivers title in 2004.

Theissen said: "We would have preferred to keep Montoya after 2004.

"I have talked to him several times in the past weeks and I would say he is more motivated than he was before. It is an unusual situation but I prefer to have it open on the table and visible to everyone. I have no doubt about his motivation.

"He wants to achieve something and he knows he has a chance so there is no way he would want to stay at home and do nothing.

We want to win the Championship, he wants to win the Championship and it would be much better for him to go to another team as the world champion than to go as number two."

As for how the BMW WilliamsF1 team will treat Juan Pablo Theissen made it clear that he would not be left out of things, including technical aspects of the car.

Theissen added: "He will get the same treatment as this year, the same treatment as his teammate. We need him, as we need Ralf, to secure as many points as possible.

"Taking know-how from the team is not a problem for us either. I would be much more nervous about a leading engineer moving on because a driver knows how the car behaves but he doesn't usually know why. And if you look how fast moving Formula One is today I am not really concerned.

"Even if he gets knowledge of some technical issues at the end of the season this will be outdated already before our competitors can use it."