Quotes of the week

MARK WEBBER, F1 driver, Red Bull
"It's like having your ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend there. Kimi must go 'what the f***?' It must feel so strange to have the teacher's pet standing above you while you are trying to get on with your own new program. Suffocation or what?" (Retired Michael Schumacher has been retained for 2007 as an advisor to Ferrari, but Webber thinks the great German's presence is an unreasonable extra pressure for Raikkonen as the Finn adapts to his switch to Ferrari after five years at McLaren)

JUAN MONTOYA, NASCAR and Grand-Am driver, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates
"I ticked everything I wanted to do in F1. Yes, it would have been nice to win a championship, but it wasn't worth it in the end. If you want to run like you're behind the safety car, go ahead and do it, but I want to entertain myself." (Commenting after racing to victory in the Grand-Am Rolex 24 at Daytona. Montoya turned down a Toro Rosso seat in F1 for 2007, and confirmed recently that he would not return to the Europe-based category even with a top team)

JEFF BURTON, NASCAR driver, Richard Childress Racing
"They screwed up Charlotte and didn't do this place any favors. What we do is inherently dangerous, and the racing doesn't have to be this fast. It's hard to get a feel for it. I don't see how too fast racing makes for good racing. The tires have to be as hard as bricks or they will explode. How many tires have we seen blow out today, three, four? We can expect tire problems when we built this type of a racetrack." (Commenting on the higher banking after testing at the redesigned Las Vegas Motor Speedway)