Juan Pablo Montoya raced for McLaren in F1.

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Montoya not surprised by McLaren's involvement in F1 spy scandal

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Although he's far removed from the Formula One spy scandal that rocked his former team, Juan Pablo Montoya can understand how it happened in the ultra-competitive series.

"It's just how Formula One is," said Montoya, who spent six seasons in the globe-trotting series. "Teams are allowed to bend the rules too much. That's just my personal opinion, but I always felt like people bent the rules and that some teams were allowed to bend the rules more than others.

"But this? This is crossing the line."

McLaren was fined $100 million last week and expelled from this year's constructors' championship because the team was in possession of a 780-page dossier that revealed rival Ferrari's technical secrets. It was later revealed through e-mail and text message exchanges that two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and test driver Pedro de la Rosa had intimate knowledge of the Ferrari setups.

Then, McLaren boss Ron Dennis said Alonso started the escalation of the scandal when he threatened to divulge compromising information to FIA after a team dispute at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Montoya said he was not surprised to hear of Alonso's participation, and said the champion was likely frustrated at the way Dennis was favoring teammate Lewis Hamilton. Both drivers are in their first seasons with McLaren and are battling each other for the championship.

"Fernando is a nice guy, but he was the No. 1 at Renault and he was used to winning and getting everything," Montoya said. "Then he went to McLaren, and when (wife) Connie and I heard that Lewis was going to be his teammate, we said, 'Oh my God.'

"We immediately felt sorry for Fernando because Lewis is Ron's baby. Ron paid his whole career, so Ron wants him to win and not Fernando. He would rather see Lewis win, who is like his own child to Ron. Fernando is nothing to him."

Montoya said he learned in two seasons with McLaren that Dennis can be like a Jekyll and Hyde. Montoya said he charms drivers while courting them to McLaren, but the charm is replaced by intense competition once the working relationship begins.

"Ron, outside the work environment, is a great guy," Montoya said. "But he's two different guys. The guy who I signed with and played golf with, he just didn't exist in the office. He was just a different person; you wouldn't even recognize him.

"He wants to control everything, and I think Fernando is (angry) about that, because he is not used to someone controlling everything and did not like that Ron was like that. I think Ron is used to drivers who don't say anything back. They are very quiet and very nice and do what everyone says, and I came along and he didn't like that. Now I guess Fernando is the same way."

So was Alonso duped into leaving Renault after two championships to drive for McLaren?

"He thought he was going to come in and be No. 1, and he's just not," Montoya said. "They try to make them be equal, but Lewis is genuinely a really fast driver. And apart from being really fast, he's Ron's favorite. It's just the truth, and it makes it bad for Fernando."

● Scott Speed is the latest former Formula One driver to move toward NASCAR, announcing Thursday he will run the ARCA race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Speed will drive the No. 21 Toyota for Eddie Sharp Racing in the Oct. 5 event.

"I come from a completely different world of racing, so there's no doubt it's going to be a challenge learning how these cars handle," Speed said. "But I'm ready to get out there and see what I've got."

Former world champion Jacques Villeneueve is also making the jump, and he'll make his Truck Series debut this weekend in Las Vegas.