Villeneuve's return
Discussion
Just read this on the ITV F1 site:
www.itv-f1.com/news/news_story/20904
Wants to come back to a team which can challenge Ferrari, er, like the one he was in then?
www.itv-f1.com/news/news_story/20904
Wants to come back to a team which can challenge Ferrari, er, like the one he was in then?
JV's the only driver of recent times (last 8 yrs) with the ability to consistently challenge Schumacher, given the right car.
Everyone else seems to have too much respect for Schumacher, and don't challenge enough, e.g. except perhaps for Montoya the other drivers can't get out of his way quick enough. Whoever's in front as soon as they see it's Schumacher it's just a matter of time before he gets past.
As for being outspoken, what's wrong with that? F1 needs character, something that it has lost drastically recently.
Everyone else seems to have too much respect for Schumacher, and don't challenge enough, e.g. except perhaps for Montoya the other drivers can't get out of his way quick enough. Whoever's in front as soon as they see it's Schumacher it's just a matter of time before he gets past.
As for being outspoken, what's wrong with that? F1 needs character, something that it has lost drastically recently.
Bring back Irvine PLEASE!manek said:
Er - he was World Champion in 1997. 'Never performed well in F1'??
I thought his "Button was only good in a good car" comments during JV's psyching-out efforts at the start of last year were more than a little unfortunate, as Button when on to do significantly better than him throughout the season.
chrisjl said:
Er - he was World Champion in 1997. 'Never performed well in F1'??
I thought his "Button was only good in a good car" comments during JV's psyching-out efforts at the start of last year were more than a little unfortunate, as Button when on to do significantly better than him throughout the season.
Hmm.
Button - needing to impress in a new team/working for his future career etc.
Villeneuve - sick and tired of yet more unfulfilled promises/nothing really to prove/completely lacking in motivation/worsening reliability through the season.
Button's very good, of course, and will be motivated to do well in the first decent BAR, plus confidence breeds further success. But he's in his 5th season in F1, so given a good car Button really should be delivering the goods - he's a seasoned pro these days, not a young hopeful.
A motivated JV back at Williams - that would be brilliant. Partner him with Dixon, perhaps, or Webber.
manek said:Maybe, but having said that JV went to BAR to do what Schumacher did at Ferarri. Somehow MS managed to mould the team around him to get the results, and JV just got p1ssed off. I think that that is a fairly major difference.
I'm not especialy a JV fan but you could see how five years with a team that appeared (until this year, suddenly) to be going nowhere could wick away anyone's motivation...
As for being able to drive the right car fast, so what. I'm not saying that being a racing driver is easy, but there are plenty of people that can drive perfect cars well - more is needed to dominate championships.
JV may be Williams only option - but when you look at his BAR performance, and Patrick Heads comments about JV making the championship look hard when you consider what he was driving, I can't see them being too keen to sign them.
I don't think that it is possible to build such a dominent car as the 1997 Williams again. Everybody says that the Ferarri is unbeatable - but if that is the case, where has Rubens been this year?
Ahonen said:
manek said:
Er - he was World Champion in 1997. 'Never performed well in F1'??
I thought his "Button was only good in a good car" comments during JV's psyching-out efforts at the start of last year were more than a little unfortunate, as Button when on to do significantly better than him throughout the season.
Hmm.
Villeneuve - sick and tired of yet more unfulfilled promises/nothing really to prove/completely lacking in motivation/worsening reliability through the season.
Surely a good driver will get in and RACE whatever car he has in front of him. And EVERY driver has something to prove- if only to themselves...
williamp said:
Surely a good driver will get in and RACE whatever car he has in front of him. And EVERY driver has something to prove- if only to themselves...
Well yes, I know what you mean, but...
Villeneuve spent five seasons in a recalcitrant and unreliable car, which has really got to get to you after a while. Yes, it was his stupid decision to re-sign each time and he probably regrets it terribly, but each time he was promised that things would improve, yet they never did. Until this year, of course.
How long can an ex-World Champion stay motivated under those conditions? The huge amounts of money he was paid would have helped, undoubtedly, but without any tangible improvement in the car in 4 1/2 seasons it really must drag you down badly. Getting lapped by Schumacher in every race - only if the car held together long enough to be lapped - and battling such 'luminaries' as Eddie Irvine and Nick Heidfeld.
Drivers have to go out and prove their worth every time, of course, but what's the point in pushing that extra 10% to try and jump from 16th to 14th on the grid? When you've been doing the same thing for 4 years, not a lot.
The comparison with Schumacher at Ferrari is interesting, but not totally valid. Schumacher took all the top guys from Benetton with him to Ferrari and was told that he'd get whatever he wanted. Things improved rapidly. Villeneuve took Jock Clear and a heap of enthusiasm, but things never improved. His constant critisism didn't help, but the problems went far deeper than that within the team.
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