Count me in as well, for me JPM just provided so much entertainment in F1 over the years, both good and bad - he was just a pure
racer. He wasn't a politician or a media manipulator, he just said what he thought, right or wrong. Yes he had a few scrapes along the way, but usually when Juan was behind someone, you knew he'd have a go on the track rather than "wait for the stops". I guess Hamilton's a bit like that on the track, but somehow JPM's flaws made him far more endearing for me personally - as a fan the rollercoaster of highs and lows made the wins all the sweeter. Moves like the pass on MS at Spa in 2004 were just sensational - there's a great picture of JPM completing the pass where MS is looking across to the Williams and just from his body language you can see him thinking "
how did he do that?"
I think that analysis Mark Hughes did of how Juan would have done at McLaren this year was quite interesting - certainly it would seem the MP4-22 would have suited JPM down to the ground. Remember in 2003 the so-called inconsistent JPM rattled off 8 consecutive podium finishes; maybe with a sniff of the title we'd have seen a similar thing in 2007. All hypothetical of course, and I do admire JPM's decision to just go and do something completely different and win in it.
I think some of the things we have seen in 2007 put JPM's time at McLaren in a different light. Kimi and Fernando, just like Juan in 2005, took time to get to grips with their new teams, and Fernando's relationship with Dennis makes Juan and Ron look like best mates. Certainly over the second half of 2005 JPM was driving well and was usually a match and sometimes quicker than Kimi. Lest we forget too, even at Indy 2006 Juan was close enough to Kimi to crash into him!