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11 November 2005
Monteiro confirms Midland deal - Kolles denies
According to Tiago Monteiro he is Christijan Albers' teammate at Midland. He confirmed his raceseat at a sportsceremony in Portugal. Monteiro received a prize for his sport achievements in 2005. Team boss Kolin Colles though denied Monteiro had already signed.
"You can never be 100% sure when the contract is going to be signed so it was clearly a huge relief to sign and now I'm looking forward to start testing with the team again," Monteiro said at the ceremony.
"At this moment we are in a much better position than we were at the start of the 2005 season. Because we have signed the deal with four months to go before the season starts, while last season we only had one month to prepare everything."
Monteiro was also talking with Frank Williams to join the team as a testdriver, but in the end he took the decision to race instead of test at Williams. "At my age the more races I do, the better. I'm very proud Williams approached me and I thank Frank Williams for believing in me, but he also understands I prefer to race."
Funny enough Midland team boss Colin Kolles did not want to confirm Monteiro's story. "There is nothing signed at this moment with Monteiro," he told F1Racing.net. "We do have an option on him and he is the most likely to be signed at the moment - it isn't secured yet though. We will announce our second driver at the right moment."