How will Juan handle F1??

[Dhru]

Everyone here is saying that Montoya is faster than Ralf or vice-versa, but it is something that we can't judge at the present moment.
The press releases imply that Ralf is putting down Montoya, but they don't tell the whole story. Ralf actually said that he couldn't rate Montoya as he'd never seen him race. However, after having the question constantly put to him since March, he said that Nick Hiedfeld had the edge over him in F3000, and Nick was finding life difficult at Prost, so presumably so would JPM. He also said that if JPM came to replace Button, Williams would have another year with a driver with no F1 race experience, and there would be no continuity in the team. All he has actually done is to point out the facts of the situation, and not actually given his opinion. The press has totally blown it out of proportion.
However, I think that JB has been totally over-rated this season. Yes he's good, but he's had the third best car on the grid, and reasonably reliable (compared to Jordan and BAR). He's had as many retirements due to unreliability as Ralf has, and yet he didn't out-race him unless Ralf had problems with the car or was hit/caused to crash by other traffic. The times he has out-qualified Ralf have come when Ralf has had his practise sessions compromised due to reliabilty. Also, compared to Ralf's first year, he hasn't done a lot. Ralf didn't have the third best car in his rookie year, it was fifth in the WCC at the end of the year. His team had little F1 experience (no wins). Ralf had no experienced driver to guide him. And yet three races in managed to bring home a podium, which could have been second instead of third if Fisi didn't crash into him. Ralf may have crashed more during his first year then Button, but Button has had his fair share of crashes this year due to inexperience too(Monza, Spa, Indy etc.).
I think I've covered evrything!
Dhru.

[CATMAN]

Montoya is very good, but there it could be war with him and Ralf. If Ralf leaves and they bring back Button surely Montoya will expect to have the number 1 spot over Ralph. He will have been in the car for two years by then.
Get rid of Ralph at the end of next year and get Button in before he`s wasted his talent!

[EERO]

Dhru, I think many of the posters here say we will have to wait to see who among RS, JPM and Button will be fastest.

Different drivers take varying amounts of time to adjust to F1, Button seems to have settled in quickly as did Villeneuve. Zanardi never did, though he put on quite a good performance at Monza, as did Mikey Andretti during his dismal season in '93. Citing Heidfeld as a comparison for Montoya's future competitiveness is to ignore the shambles of Prost's past season and to ignore the fact that Heidfeld was frequently faster than the talented Alesi.

If you read back through the thread, you woulsd see that several of us acknowledge that all three drivers contracted to Williams are good, and that Frank and Patrick have their choice of three talented pilots.

Despite Button's one season in F1, Montoya has gobs more experience in cars and he will not dissapoint next season.