I guess you’d say he is out of control but at the same time in control – he’s always super smooth.”Sir Frank Williams finally got around to announcing at Indianapolis what the world has known most of the season: that Montoya will “replace” Button at Williams-BMW in 2001 as partner to Ralf Schumacher. The German is no slouch himself, but Kirby is not alone in feeling sorry for him. Montoya, they say, is going to get inside Schumacher’s head right from the start “He is very strong mentally,” Kirby says. “The guy doesn’t say much, he isn’t much of an intellectual or a personality outside the team environment, but he just loves what he is doing. He’s just a kid who is enjoying himself, and he can translate that into the team He is a fantastic motivator. A straight-ahead, let’s go, let’s make it better kind of a guy.”Much has been made of the fact that Montoya’s arrival is pushing Button off to Benetton-Renault for the next two seasons, and for the first time this weekend Williams finally revealed the course of events leading up to that. “My partner Patrick Head and I felt that we would make every effort to secure Juan; and that has happened Regrettably, I want to state, at Jenson Button’s expense And Jenson is going to be another great driver.

We’re sad he’s had to go elsewhere for a period of time” – Button is contracted to Williams until 2005 – “but we had already made an unspoken commitment to Juan and we didn’t intend to back out of it because suddenly it was inconvenient.”Williams played down his expectations of Montoya, but F1 team owners do nothing out of sentiment and he will be expected to race hard and to win. “Clearly he is a very talented driver and I don’t think he’s done anything but learn and improve by racing over here [the States] for two seasons. These cars, after all, have 900 horsepower, which is embarrassingly more than we have. Beyond saying those words, no-one can be exactly sure what his achievements may or may not be.”Montoya appears to have the right credentials thus far. He has won on all types of circuit, including the tough ovals, where lap speeds reach 240 mph. “I’d hesitate to say he is better than Ayrton Senna,” Kirby concedes.

“But he is certainly in that category and he is better than Michael.” More than one vaunted hotshoe has gone cold at F1 level, but it is all food for thought for the man who looks increasingly likely to wear this year’s crown. Not just for the challenge he faces, but for what may lie in wait for his brother, too.. Wales will face the challenge of this autumn’s World Cup with just one native-born player, and one borrowed from rugby union, but with a new depth of rugby league know-how. Wales will face the challenge of this autumn’s World Cup with just one native-born player, and one borrowed from rugby union, but with a new depth of rugby league know-how.
The squad announced in Cardiff yesterday to meet New Zealand, the Cook Islands and the Lebanon in the group stages of the tournament will be largely composed of English-born players, but their coach, Clive Griffiths, treading the sacred turf of Welsh rugby union yesterday for the first time since he went north in 1979, denied that would be a handicap.”Anyone who doubts the passion of the first and second generation lads should stick their heads around the dressing-room door when they get together,” he said. “Compared with 1995 this team might lack the big names from rugby union, but there is a lot of rugby league nous about it.”That vital element can only be strengthened by the inclusion of newcomers such as the Leeds pair of Anthony Farrell and Paul Sterling and Salford’s versatile Australian back, Kris Tassell.Farrell and Sterling have played for England in the past and would have been fringe candidates for John Kear’s squad. “I was unsure which way to go until last week, but Iestyn Harris had been talking to us about it and I’d made him a promise,” said Farrell, whose grandfather was born in Cardiff.Tassell had already researched his Welsh roots for his visa application when he came to Salford at the start of this season: “My granddad emigrated from Pontypridd to Brisbane and this was just too good an opportunity to pass up,” he said as he surveyed the Millennium Stadium where Wales will play the Kiwis in the pivotal match of the group stage on 5 November.The only Welsh-born player in the squad is St Helen’s reserve forward Gareth Price, while Jason Critchley, back at Leicester after a brief return to league with Wakefield, is the only rugby union player to be released.That makes it a very different looking side from 1995, when Wales reached the semi-finals with a team laced with returning heroes.