French driver Franck Montagny revealed recently that he was planning to walk away from the 2005 Formula One championship winning team, RenaultF1 after it had been decided that young RDD driver Heikki Kovalainen, the driver he beat in a fair and squar battle in the World Series by Nissan championship two seasons ago, would be taking his place.

Naturally he is disappointed with the way things have eventuated as he had been hoping to secure a full time race drive in the series by this stage, however, as the winter months approach and teams start gearing up for 2006, things don’t look too hopeful.

However, the young drivers experience and technical knowledge should be assets to any team, especially when they know he played a major role in developing the 2005 world championship winning R25.

“People are more interested than if I was, say, with a lesser-quality team… I developed tyres and the car, it was a revolution I was a part of,” he told us. “With Montagny teams can say yes, he works well! With him Renault found itself in a good position, so it’s a plus.”

However, as is becoming normal practice these days, his talent doesn’t count for much if he doesn’t have the budget to go with it…

“In F1 without massive support from a constructor or a network, like Red Bull, or sizeable financial support the deal grows complicated,” he confirmed. “For example, Sato could be an asset for a team: he as driven a lot, he has technical baggage and some teams are selling him, but he has to provide money despite it all.”

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