Montoya Changes Direction

Juan Pablo Montoya, the Indianapolis 500 winner and the most exciting driver in America the last two years, made official Thursday what everyone has anticipated for months.

He is leaving Chip Ganassi’s CART team to drive for the BMW Williams team in Formula One next year.

A native of Colombia, Montoya joined Ganassi last year after testing for Williams in 1997 and winning the Formula 3000 championship in 1998. He was an immediate sensation, winning seven races, seven poles and the CART championship. At 25 he was the youngest series champion.

This year, when Ganassi decided to enter a team for the Indianapolis 500, Montoya toyed with the field in much the same way he had toyed with CART competition. In CART this year, using a new chassis-engine combination, the team has suffered a number of mechanical problems, but he still has three wins and six pole positions, among them last week’s win at Gateway Raceway, near St. Louis.

Montoya also won this year’s Michigan 500, giving him an opportunity to join Al Unser Sr. as the only driver to win three open-wheel 500-mile races in the same year. The California 500 at Fontana will be run Oct. 29. Unser won at Indy, Pocono and Ontario in 1978.

Although Montoya has won only three times this season, he has led 716 laps on ovals, the fourth-highest total for any driver in CART history, and he still has three races remaining.

With BMW Williams, Montoya will replace rookie Jenson Button, who has been temporarily released from his contract to drive next year for Benetton.

Montoya, 25, who was not present at the announcement, will team with Ralf Schumacher, younger brother of two-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher.

He will begin testing the new BMW Williams on Dec. 1. Before joining Ganassi, as a replacement for Alex Zanardi, Montoya had driven more than 5,000 miles in testing.

Jacques Villeneuve was Williams’ No. 1 driver at the time. Asked his impressions of the young Colombian, Villeneuve said, “That’s not a fair question because when Juan Pablo was there, he wasn’t there to do any work for the team. He was there just to get up to speed and he was there to be tested himself, not to test the car.

“So, honestly, as a driver, we didn’t pay much attention to what was happening on that side, as he wasn’t there to do any work for us.”

Montoya’s departure will leave Ganassi, the championship owner the last four years, with two drivers to replace. Jimmy Vasser, the 1996 champion and Montoya’s teammate, was released by Ganassi last month.