Montoya 'the second choice' for McLaren !

As if it wasnt bleeding obvious, McLaren's chief executive, Martin Whitmarsh has said the team would prefer to retain Kimi Raikonnen as Fernando Alonso's team-mate next season. The point really is if Kimi wants to continue at McLaren.

The start to McLaren's 2006 challenge has not been exactly spectacular, but neither has it been a disaster. Compared to this point last season, they have more points and better reliability. But while the MP4-20 was clearly the fastest car, MP4-21 seems to be way off the pace of Renault and Ferrari.

And this is what could convince Kimi to leave McLaren. In 4 years, they have failed to give Kimi a championship winning car. He was close in 2003, and 2005 - and clearly in both cases, it was the car's unreliability that cost him dearly. Kimi would love to drive in a car that can be both fast and reliable - cars like the Renault or Ferrari.

It is a decision thats going to be tough. He could be shown up by the maestro at Ferrari. He could have trouble adjusting to a new team after 4 years at one team. But, he could have a better chance of winning a championship.

But what about Montoya ? Where does this leave him ? Montoya himself is not too happy with McLaren treating him as "No.2 driver", even though he has managed more or less to be as fast as Kimi this season and late last season. Rumour has it that he could leave McLaren even without waiting for Kimi's decision. Where he could go is another question (and fodder for another post!), but it does explain why McLaren are desperate now to hang on to the Iceman Finn, and have given him a free hand to decide about his future.

Lots of possibilities could emerge out of this situation. Some young faces could come in, some well known faces could go out. Keep watching this space for more.