Montoya's reason for leaving

It has been confirmed by WilliamsF1 Technical Director Patrick Head that Juan Pablo Montoya's decision to move to McLaren came about after Juan Pablo was involved in a heated moments with the team as a result of events at last years French Grand Prix.

Head indicated that at the race there were heated moments between Juan Pablo and WilliamsF1 team management when Juan Pablo believed that he had been unfairly treated while his team-mate Ralf had been given an advantage in the drivers pitstops.

This would see Juan Pablo explode on the radio and abuse WilliamsF1 team members, including Sam Michael. As a result of this out burst the team would reprimand Juan Pablo at a meeting on the following Wednesday.

Head explained the events. He said: "Juan incorrectly thought that we had notified Ralf of his actions and called Ralf in one lap early. So he was pretty strong on the radio abusing the team verbally for the next 10 minutes.

"And then I think he went into a bit of a sulk and backed off and cruised to the end of the race and maybe finished 15 or 20 seconds behind Ralf. In fact as it happened in that last bit of the race, Ralf made a bit of an error and slipped wide. Had Juan been on his tail he probably could have taken advantage of it."

Head added: "Verbally abusing the team continuously on the radio we didn't think was appropriate when the guys had worked their nuts off on the car and done some fantastic pitstops.

"Juan didn't like that very much. We did talk about it. We thought we couldn't have a situation where he pretty much accused everyone in the team from top to bottom of being incompetent twice."

As for why Juan Pablo would subsequently make his decision to move to McLaren Head said: "I think Juan was not impressed at having his knuckles rapped and I know the decision to sign with McLaren was taken within a few days of that."

Head went on the explain his view of Juan Pablo. He said: "Finishing second behind his teammate does not make him a happy lad. Juan is a passionate character and by virtue of that he sometimes makes impulsive decisions and comes to impulsive conclusions. He's probably not perfect but I expect he will win championships in his time."