Rogue Profile of Jacques Villeneuve

I don’t really have a problem with team orders at the racetrack,” said 2001 F1 Rogues Champion Villeneuve, (sitting alongside Barrichello at a news conference on Wednesday ahead of Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix.)”The only thing that I felt was unacceptable was the podium situation. If you win a race, even if its in a way that you didn’t like, be a man and step on the top step and just take your trophy, even if you are embarrassed because everybody is booing at you. You accepted taking the win, you didn’t slow down, you felt good about it, you raised your hand on the last lap until you heard people booing at you. Step up there, take the trophy and be a man.”

Here at F1 Rogues we totally agree with Jacques. As far as tactics and sportsmanship goes Schumacher’s reputation is not exactly squeaky clean and given that he had eight laps to think about whether he would steal Barrichello’s victory does not paint him in a good light. Well at least he did not ram Barrichello off the track!

“We’ve had a hard time today finding the right set- up so it hasn’t been the best start to the weekend,” he explained. “We still need to do a lot of work with the tyre options because we haven’t been able to get the best from them yet. We’re basically looking for more grip so we have to come up with a solution for that but it looks like it could be tougher for us this weekend.”

Jacques Villeneuve admitted that Renault replacing Jenson Button with test driver
Fernando Alonso for 2003 astounded him. According to Villeneuve, this is the second
year running that Renault has ousted the best driver on the payroll after dismissing
Giancarlo Fisichella in favour of Jarno Trulli this season. Renault team boss
Flavio Briatore manages both Trulli and Alonso, however the Italian insists there
is no ulterior motive behind the moves, as in his eyes Trulli and Alonso are the
long term pairing the outfit needs to eventually succeed in Formula One.

"I’ve never really taken much time considering what is important, apart
from being fast, for a team. If you just look at Formula 1 and a lot of the signings
that have been going on at different teams, it’s obvious that being fast is very
secondary," he told BBC radio 5. "I’m not saying that Jenson
is not fast because this year he is definitely a lot more competitive than Trulli,
all I’m saying is that’s very difficult to understand, or to know why decisions
are made. I’ve been pulling my hair out a few times when I’ve seen what’s happened
at the Renault team. For the last two years the better driver of the season always
gets the sack. I find that very impressive (ironic). I really don’t understand
why or how you can come up with decisions like that."

Eleven minuets into Friday’s second free practice session, Villeneuve span
off the track at turn four, ripping one of the bargeboards off his BAR04. The
yellow flags ensued but Villeneuve was able to recover his car back to the pits.

“Today got off to a good start and we were going well on old tyres considering
the track conditions. It was quite slippery as is usually the case on a Friday
here but generally we were improving throughout the session,” Jacques
explained. “We used the new tyres in this afternoon’s session and had
a harder time trying to get them to work. Then, I made a mistake by braking late
into turn 4 and ended up spinning off. The problem with the gravel traps here
is that they’re more like ‘rock’ traps and can cause a lot of damage to the car,
as we saw. We had to replace the floor and the bargeboards and I lost over 30
minutes in the second session, so I wasn’t able to work with the tyres very much
at all. We haven’t made enough progress today and we have a lot of work to do
with the data now to prepare us for tomorrow’s session.”

Villeneuve was fighting his ill balanced BAR all through the qualifying hour.
The car was a real handful and it was not surprising that his third run was punctuated
by a seemingly inevitable 360-degree spin as he exited turn five.

"I’m not happy with 13th because we could have done much better today.
We had a mechanical problem this morning, which we only found out about at the
end of free practice so we didn’t have a set-up ready for qualifying. We had to
go with what we had and work on improving it during the session," he
explained. "We salvaged it a little bit but obviously not enough. In the
quickest corner Sato slowed me down so I tried to compensate by pushing hard into
the next corner and ended up spinning off. The Hungarian Grand Prix is a very
physical race; it’s very hot and there are only a couple of straight lines so
you’re mainly driving corners, which is very demanding over 77 laps. Generally
we’ve got a tough race ahead of us tomorrow."

Excluding Ferrari, after Saturday’s qualifying session Jacques Villeneuve was
the fastest Bridgestone shod runner. Even a spin across the gravel as he avoided
a slowing Sauber on his third run failed to significantly blunt his speed.

"We’ve managed to salvage the weekend a little bit because we had problems
yesterday and then in practice this morning the aero wasn’t working properly so
we couldn’t set the car up that well for qualifying. On my second run this afternoon,
I was passing a slowing Sauber and ran wide, which caused me to spin off backwards
into the gravel," Jacques explained. "Fortunately I recovered
it quite well, stuck it into reverse and kept going backwards to get onto the
track which minimised the amount of gravel I collected thankfully. After that
we made steady improvement during the last two runs but then de la Rosa spun in
front of me and I lost my only chance of making the top 10 today. We were the
fastest Bridgestone runner after Ferrari again but in a fair race tomorrow it’s
going to be very difficult to get close to the points. If the weather is wet though
that could count in our favour."

Friday’s first practice session was red-flagged after twenty-six minutes when
BAR’s Jacques Villeneuve rode the right hand kerbs on the exit of Spoon corner
too hard and spun into the tyres. Both ends of his off his BAR004 were removed:
debris scattered across the track. Michael Schumacher following close behind had
just enough time to stop and pick his way through the debris strewn across the
track.

"As soon as I got on the kerb the traction control decided not to work,"
said Jacques afterwards when asked if it was driver error, "normally you
can drive it flat across the grass, but not this time."

Though Villeneuve thought his mechanics would be able to get his car out in
time for the second session, the damage was extensive and he was unable to take
to the track until only twelve minutes of the afternoon’s session remaining.

"It was heavier than I thought," said the Canadian 2001 F1
Rogues World champion. "You’re spinning like mad and you think you are
not going fast and when you hit the wall it’s like ‘Oh, wow. That was faster than
I thought."

On lap twenty-five Jacques Villeneuve pulled another masterstroke in his campaign
to destroy Jenson Button. Rumour had it that the atmosphere at BAR had settled
after the two drivers had "faced-off" but in hindsight, Jacques may
have been playing the part of "smiling assassin."

On lap twenty-four Jacques was supposed to pit for fuel and tyres but due to
a garbled radio message he passed the pit entry. Button was due in on the next
lap and BAR reacted quickly by telling Jacques to alter his engine settings to
conserve fuel.

To the team’s horror Jacques entered the pits in front of Button at the end
of the lap and then to compound things further, ignored the order to let Jenson
past. Jacques pulled into the BAR pit-box and forced Button to wait his turn.
Whether there was a radio problem in the first place or not, Jacques could have
done the decent thing but then again, why help Button when you can smash him in
the face with a baseball bat?

At the end of the race Jacques had finished in a lacklustre ninth but it had
been a good day at the office for the 2001 F1 Rogues Champion. He had beaten Button
on the track and he had and administered a damaging psychological blow, getting
FIA points would have been a bonus!

"It was very frustrating that we made the wrong tyre choice at the start
and for my team-mate to come in on the wrong lap was disappointing and quite embarrassing
really," explained Button. "The car worked very well in the practice
sessions and qualifying so it was very disappointing to finish where we did today
because we were very quick in the race."

At the Thursday press conference, Jenson Button took the opportunity to rehash
his theories behind the previous race’s muddled pitstop. The misunderstanding
saw teammate; Jacques Villeneuve missed his own stop and then pull in front of
the Englishman forcing him to queue in the pit lane.

The Button had been very vocal in his disappointment with the situation, even
though both Villeneuve and team boss Dave Richards, explained that the incident
was due to a malfunctioning radio.

Villeneuve had grown tired of Button’s accusation (although you could not wonder
if Button had a point) especially as Button had been outwardly understanding in
Melbourne. Jacques responded in the way that he knew how by a good verbal savaging,
branding Button as weak, a back-stabber and lacking in intelligence.

"I was highly, highly disappointed to be blasted by my teammate in the
media when coming out of the car he was all smiley and handshakes and everything,"
he said. "I found that a little bit weak — but I guess that’s what
I have to cope with now, a weak teammate. I have been working my butt off for
this team for four or five years then somebody arrives and blasts me for what
was not under my control. That’s a little bit freaky."

"I think it is very important for a driver to be self-critical before
he starts blaming anybody else," he said. "If you spend your
career saying what could have been then you don’t achieve anything. That is a
little bit what has happened through Jenson’s career."

The row between the two drivers was to escalate further that weekend when Button
issued his repost. It was turning into a simmering rivalry that could have eclipsed
Piquet and Mansell’s mutual hatred.

The Friday Morning of the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix was marred by torrential rain.
Before the 2003 season this would not have been much so much of an issue: since
the introduction of the rule that only permitted the manufactures to bring one
type of "wet weather tyre" to a race, problems arose.

Both Michelin Bridgestone had bought their "intermediate specification"
tyres to Interlagos and that was the problem. The drivers were disadvantaged in
the very wet conditions; the amount of standing water on the track called for
"full wets." As a result, several of the drivers drew up a petition
against competing in the rain during the Friday qualifying sessions but Villeneuve
criticised them for "insulting" the fans who had turned up to watch.

"I never saw the petition and if I had I would not have signed it.
What would it bring to Formula One for us not to go and qualify? People would
think that we are just a bunch of sissies," Villeneuve said. "We
can’t do that. We are paid a whole lot of money and it would be an insult to the
fans. Formula One has been hurting for the past couple of years and it’s very
important for us to give a show and go out there and drive. Sure, there is a little
risk in those conditions, but not enough not to drive. If you think it is too
dangerous then drive slowly."

Jacques went on to offer his critique on the controversial tyre rule, labelling
it as "extremely dangerous."

"This rule is a big concern. It has forced the tyre manufacturers into
building a wet tyre that will drive until you can put slicks on. Max is always
trying to make rules that are safe. He is always pushing for safety so I am sure
he will see the logic in having two different types of tyres as that will make
it a lot safer."

Although Villeneuve was being controversial, he was largely correct. At least
he had the courage to speak up.