Jacques Villeneuve......
Discussion
Well, is it just me, or does the reappearance of this little hobbit seem to be a waste of time and effort, not to mention a waste of a decent seat in Sauber?
Never really understood why he came back.
Did he bring money? After all, his moodiness and unwillingness to do the sponsor / commercial stuff is legendary and well deserved. He is a grumpy, moody little bloke who does'nt listen to good advice.
I can think of lots of drivers who would do a more professional , points scoring job than Villeneuve. Hell, I think DC would be a better choice for the team...
What do you lot think of him?
Never really understood why he came back.
Did he bring money? After all, his moodiness and unwillingness to do the sponsor / commercial stuff is legendary and well deserved. He is a grumpy, moody little bloke who does'nt listen to good advice.
I can think of lots of drivers who would do a more professional , points scoring job than Villeneuve. Hell, I think DC would be a better choice for the team...
What do you lot think of him?
If the Sauber really is an economy replica of a Ferrari, and Massa's form seems to suggest it could be a bit special, then JV could be a dark horse next year and put it close to the front. Wishful thinking perhaps but I think the Renault transition was irrelevant to judging JV's form - I think that team has lost its way.
Jaques Villeneuve is one of the few drivers left in F1 who will express his opinion over towing the corporate (ie boring) line. As well as this he is also a quick driver (his fastest lap was as fast as Alonso's fastest in Brazil), and a world champion. There is only one other world champion in F1. DO you pick A. DC, who has won 12 GP and been soundly beaten by MH and KR or B: JV who is a world champion and has beaten MS and MH.
The Renault has very good traction as we know from the fast starts & the fight with Button a few races back.
They do not only have a good traction control system but the car has a high rear weight bias. This means the front is very light. Hence a previous reply on Alonso's cornering aggression.
This must make a difficult car to drive with little or no previous testing.
Also Villeneuve did out race DC.
They do not only have a good traction control system but the car has a high rear weight bias. This means the front is very light. Hence a previous reply on Alonso's cornering aggression.
This must make a difficult car to drive with little or no previous testing.
Also Villeneuve did out race DC.
Seems to be a bit of a difference of opinion.
The other side of the story.
Jacques Villeneuve on Crash.net said:
Jacques Villeneuve has insisted he has no regrets about his decision to join Renault for the final three races of the 2004 season, and says he is satisfied with his performance – despite failing to pick up any points.
The 1997 World Champion, who found himself without a drive this season after leaving BAR, joined the French team when Jarno Trulli departed after the Italian Grand Prix – giving him three races to reacclimatise himself with Formula One before a fulltime return in 2005 with Sauber.
A disappointing eleventh place in China was followed by an equally disappointing tenth place in Japan, and although he again finished in tenth, and out of the points, in Brazil, Villeneuve felt his performance was much improved on the previous two races.
“I'm very happy,” he said after the race. “Suzuka was embarrassing in the race, but here it wasn't, even though it was the same finish. I was still tenth, but it was a good race.”
Like his team mate Fernando Alonso, the Canadian gambled on dry tyres at the start of the race, and that at least allowed him to run near the sharp end throughout the first stint.
Villeneuve believes that it was the right decision to go with dry tyres, even though he wasn't able to match his team mate's great run to fourth place.
“It worked for Fernando,” he said. “But then on the second lap I had a run on him, but I just didn't want to take the risk, because he was my team mate, and there was no point to both go off. Had it been another car, then I would have tried.
“It wasn't too bad. What was tricky was that so many cars were on intermediates and I was thinking they were on dry tyres. Seeing them hooked up to the track was tricky! The first two laps I was actually still behind Fernando, but then cars got in between us and then he went away.”
Despite his lack of points, Villeneuve says he has no regrets over the decision to join Renault, insisting that, if anything, it will help his preparations for next season.
“Oh, definitely,” he said, “it's not time lost. It will be very useful for next year. I'll have a few days off, and then back into training. I'm not tired from the season so I can get back into training easily!”
The other side of the story.
Renault F1 on Crash.net said:
Jacques Villeneuve may have insisted that he has no regrets of his decision to join Renault for the final three races of 2004, but it appears that the teams bosses don't agree with the Canadians view of his short time with the squad.
Villeneuve joined the French outfit after the Italian Grand Prix to replace Jarno Trulli, after the Toyota bound Italian suffered a major loss of form during the mid-part of season. At that point the team was involved in a heated battle with BAR for second place in the constructors championship, but Villeneuve failed to score during the last three rounds of the season as Jenson Button and Takuma Sato secured enough points for BAR to take second spot.
Some questioned whether Villeneuve was the right man for the job when he was appointed, having not raced a Formula One car since September 2003 in the US Grand Prix. However driver and team were confident that the deal would be beneficial to both parties – putting a proven race winner alongside Fernando Alonso in the battle for second while also giving Villeneuve track time ahead of his full time return with Sauber in 2005.
But now the president of the Renault team Patrick Faure has admitted that the team made a mistake in turning to Villeneuve.
"I think we made a mistake, we must own up to it," he told Eurosport. "I think both Flavio Briatore and myself probably under-estimated the effects of a ten-month lay off - even for a world champion with the experience and talent of Jacques. To expect him to come straight in and score points immediately was probably unrealistic.
"The ten months he took off made it very, very difficult for him. I don't think his problem has been re-adapting to Formula One, I just think that, physically, he needs a few more months of competition to find top gear. He is the first to admit it when we have spoken.
"There have been a few good developments as far as F1 is concerned but, in a sporting context, this signing has not been a success. Clearly we made a mistake."
Poor old JV really hung himself out there for the obvious slagging..
He hasn't had much experience in a 2004 car, and a car that has an evil imbalance designed into it as well!!, So to expect him to jump in and be right 'on it' was probably asking too much, Renault IMO did make a mistake and probably should have used a current test driver instead.
I think we will see some spirited driving from JV next year.
As for DC well I think he has shown he has it in him to be a good choice as second driver at Williams, he just hasn't shown it this year....He seems like a tired and fed up guy....a change to a new team might give him what he needs....a kick up the backside!!
He hasn't had much experience in a 2004 car, and a car that has an evil imbalance designed into it as well!!, So to expect him to jump in and be right 'on it' was probably asking too much, Renault IMO did make a mistake and probably should have used a current test driver instead.
I think we will see some spirited driving from JV next year.
As for DC well I think he has shown he has it in him to be a good choice as second driver at Williams, he just hasn't shown it this year....He seems like a tired and fed up guy....a change to a new team might give him what he needs....a kick up the backside!!
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff