Jv. F1 Car Designer.

[HandyNZL 1]

From Made in Motorsport webby:

Feb.16 (GMM) Jacques Villeneuve has given a fascinating insight into some of the teams he experienced during his decade in formula one."I loved Williams because there was a good atmosphere," the French Canadian, who won the world championship with the British team in 1997, told the French language pitlane-vision.com."But that was normal because we were in front. I had a lot of freedom to work on the car and there were no political problems," added the winner of 11 grands prix, who turns 40 this year.After his early success with Williams, Villeneuve switched to the new BAR team, headed by his then manager Craig Pollock."At BAR, I had a lot of freedom with the car but there were so many political problems that it was unmanageable."After one year there was the impression that we had been racing for 5 years non-stop -- it was pretty exhausting," added Villeneuve, who after 1997 never won another race.His final seasons in F1 were with Sauber."On the other side to Williams, at Sauber, it was 'Shut up and drive, we do not want you to design the car!'" he concluded.

++++++++++++++++

Lets analyse this:

1/ You drove for Williams in 97, with the car of the field and made a hash of winning the championship, whilst (now admitted above) you played around with the car.

2/ Williams sucked the following year, because you played with the car, perhaps?

3/ BAR sucked, because you played with the car.

4/ Peter told you to drive, because he didn't want to go any further backwards down the grid....he had BMW for that.

5/ JV can not design cars. Obviously.

[Senna's Ghost 0]

I fully agree with your analysis of Villeneuve's career. He is a driver that had a very inflated opinion of his own talent and value (not the first driver to do this) and this opinion was further inflated by a circle of close friends and believers. Some of these believers inlcuded journalists who seemed to have selective memory when it came to writing about his exploits behind the wheel.

During 1995 there was a huge amount of pressure on Williams to bring in a big name driver to lead the fight in 1996 and Eccelstone was keen that Williams sign Villeneuve. Hill and Coulthard had a potential championship winning car in 1995 but they made too many errors during the season, as did the Williams team themselves, and they were made to look like amateurs at some of the races against the Benetton Renault. Villeneuve was winning his Champ Car crown and the Indy 500 in that year and Pollock was doing a very good job at selling Villeneuve's services. The 1996 Williams was even better than the 95 and they were untouchable during the year. It was going to be a battle between the two Williams drivers for the title.

Before the 1996 season started you heard stories about how Villeneuve had wanted his car set up to be totally different from the accepted norm of F1 and away from what the team recommended. He went for a very stiff set up that induced, or had the potential to induce high levels of tyre wear. He wanted a single paddle gear shifter. He wanted a two pedal layout in the car, rather than the three that was still the norm back then. All of this was accepted and accommodated by the team. He had some good races that year, but Hill was better and duly won the crown. Villeneuve showed that he couldn't race on street circuits that year and he never improved that situation throughout his F1 career. At the end of his time at Williams I think there was little love lost. Patrick Head certainly put it into perspective when he said that Villeneuve had made a meal of winning the 1997 title and should have wrapped things up far earlier in the year given the car at his disposal.

I think his move to his own team at BAR was one of the worst career decisions ever. I think he and Pollock had looked at Michael Schumacher at Ferrari during 1996 and 1997 and thought that is what we must do. We've got to have a team totally focussed and built around Villeneuve because he's as good, if not better than Schumacher. And Pollock could do the Todt job just as well as he's been around racing for a few years and picked a few things up in that time. Pollock must have done the best salesman's job ever at BAT. Well, it turned out that he wasn't as good a Todt (no surprise) and Villeneuve wasn't as good a Schumacher (no surprise). Pollock got ousted from his role after wasteful management and no performance gains and Dave Richards came in who was not going to be blow smoke up Villenenuve's arse, telling him how brilliant he was and that the fault must be somewhere else. Button joined the team and was given support by Richards and Villeneuve realised that the game was up, he had been found out and put in a position, in his own team, that was untenable.

Journalists love Villeneuve because he does their job for them; great copy, want an unflattering opinion on a driver's ability, lets go ask Villeneuve. He's less keen to cast that critical eye into the mirror and tell us what he sees.

Edited because I spotted a typo. There's probably more in there

[duest 0]

Agreed.

[Delta 0]

Agreed, I always thought he was overhyped as well.

[dribbler 6]

Agree that if JV went his own way on set up, against the wishes of Head, it may have been to his and Team Willy's detriment. However, there is the story about how he insisted having the left side of the car set up differently to the right for Estoril '96, in order for him to overtake on the outside of the final corner. He made it stick. It might have been on a dog of a '96 Ferrari, but it was a move on Michael and it woke him up. Enough to play a psychological game with him, which Michael lost the following year.

Flawed, yes. Ballsy and strong though.

[teddydub 0]

I'm Canadian and totally agree.

For having supported his father from FFord days in Canada, one additional thing to mention is that he was also, in my but other canadian racer's opinion also, quite a disgrace to his father. He somewhat inherited his spirit for showmanship and ba**s, not quite the talent and absolutely not the humility and total "niceness" Gilles had. He must have made him turn in his grave.

[dribbler 6]

I'm Canadian and totally agree.

For having supported his father from FFord days in Canada, one additional thing to mention is that he was also, in my but other canadian racer's opinion also, quite a disgrace to his father. He somewhat inherited his spirit for showmanship and ba**s, not quite the talent and absolutely not the humility and total "niceness" Gilles had. He must have made him turn in his grave.

Hardly; he achieved something his father never did. You're being too harsh, in my opinion. With a great car or not, Jacques Villeneuve was a champion. Give your country man some credit.

It's his songs that suck.

[KoolMonkey 0]

I'll never agree to this wholesale bashing of JV. He was F1 WDC, Indycar Champ and also winner of the Indy 500. That is one hell of a resume, no matter if you like him or not.

I will say his years at BAR in retrospect were a disaster, but that doesn't mean he was a Sh#t driver. The points people try to bring up to justify just slagging him off are comical. And even more so, he always spoke his mind. Yet he's crucified and vilified still to this day for doing so. But when it's Webber apparently speaking his mind, he's the greatest gift to F1 since Senna.

Maybe JV was never in the right team at the end of the day. Driver input is valid to no end, and if a driver is then told to shut it, we don't need, want or think you have any experience or knowledge, I pity the team, not the driver. All drivers give input. If a team chooses to ignore this, it doesn't mean the input information was flawed, rather for other reasons be it personality wise, or other situations, it gets rejected.

I consider myself an objective fan, but the amount of Sh#t that has been directed towards JV is absurd. Where he's made mistakes, I can certainly agree no doubt. But what is going on here is being burnt at the stake. If a champion like JV who has won the things he has in his career can get treated like this, then so help us all.

[dribbler 6]

As I said, his music sucks.

[DOF_power 0]

Agreed.

Second that.

[Kopite Girl 0]

I'll never agree to this wholesale bashing of JV. He was F1 WDC, Indycar Champ and also winner of the Indy 500. That is one hell of a resume, no matter if you like him or not.

I will say his years at BAR in retrospect were a disaster, but that doesn't mean he was a Sh#t driver. The points people try to bring up to justify just slagging him off are comical. And even more so, he always spoke his mind. Yet he's crucified and vilified still to this day for doing so. But when it's Webber apparently speaking his mind, he's the greatest gift to F1 since Senna.

Maybe JV was never in the right team at the end of the day. Driver input is valid to no end, and if a driver is then told to shut it, we don't need, want or think you have any experience or knowledge, I pity the team, not the driver. All drivers give input. If a team chooses to ignore this, it doesn't mean the input information was flawed, rather for other reasons be it personality wise, or other situations, it gets rejected.

I consider myself an objective fan, but the amount of Sh#t that has been directed towards JV is absurd. Where he's made mistakes, I can certainly agree no doubt. But what is going on here is being burnt at the stake. If a champion like JV who has won the things he has in his career can get treated like this, then so help us all.

Tell you what, come back when you say the same about Alonso.

[mikathegreat2 2]

Nice sig Handy!

[KoolMonkey 0]

Sure I'll bite Kopite. I've voiced displeasure at Alonso's antics in the past, but to compare him to JV only makes you look like a simpleton, and I don't think you are such a person. An vague statement about Alonso isn't neither here no there.

[Quiet One 15]

Yes, Steph, like a simpleton! How could you?

[Caesar 0]

Who is Steph?

[dribbler 6]

I thought Caesar was Steph?

[Insider 0]

As I said, his music sucks.

As an F1 pilot he was a fine songwriter

[mikathegreat2 2]

Sure I'll bite Kopite. I've voiced displeasure at Alonso's antics in the past, but to compare him to JV only makes you look like a simpleton, and I don't think you are such a person. An vague statement about Alonso isn't neither here no there.

[lewisthegreat2 0]

Someone once posted something about how Jacques Villeneuve played a role in the 96-97 Williams vehicles being so good. Something about setups from CART, revolutionary to F1, I think. Was that someone here, or someone on another forum? I don't know why I think it may have been something Autumnpuma said, other than that if it's something intelligent and providing a fair and balanced point of view on Villeneuve, it was probably Autumnpuma.

People are way too hard on Jacques just because he never repeated his successes. Yeah, he made **** decisions, and yeah, he's not a marketing dream, but really. Lewis won the title in his second year and has not put a great season together since and you'd be very misguided to question to his ability.

Maybe I just sympathize with Villeneuve. His constant leaving and returning and changes of mind between NASCAR and F1 mimic my time on this forum.

[HandyNZL 1]

I'd just like to say, that I wasn't attacking JV. I just feel that there is no point in rehashing old ground, or trying to get one up on someone by somehow "exposing" them for something that happen many years prior and really has no bearing on anything.

JV was pretty mega in CART. He came and played with the big boys in F1 and did better than most. He also did, at times, do less than most. Such is the nature of the beast.

I don't really care for the political BS...just get in and drive, as they say.

[Kopite Girl 0]

Yes, I double posted again. ****ing ban me. Not interested.

[Kopite Girl 0]

Sure I'll bite Kopite. I've voiced displeasure at Alonso's antics in the past, but to compare him to JV only makes you look like a simpleton, and I don't think you are such a person. An vague statement about Alonso isn't neither here no there.

Look. You bang on about JV bashing and how you don't agree with it because he was a champion. You make references all over this ****ing forum about how bad Alonso is, when he has more championships than JV. I pulled your comment as tongue in cheek reference to what appears to be blatant two faced behaviour. You want to say I'm a simpleton or rather mask it by saying my post appeared to be made by a simpleton because your balls are too ****ing tiny, then go ahead. I'll go one further and tell you that 75% of what you say is bulls##t because you really are a bona fide top shelf window licking retard. Don't ****ing start with me, I'm in no mood to be ****ing messed about with. Call that what you will. Report me if you like because I DON'T GIVE A RATS C*NT ANYMORE.

[Kopite Girl 0]

Yes, Steph, like a simpleton! How could you?

I'm sorry. My simpleton mind doesn't register that question. I'll be banned by tomorrow, so it was nice knowing you. I'm just going to tell you that I appreciated your very kind words on my blog. Being strong sucks c#ck. I can't grieve, every one of my family is, but I can't. I have to keep it together. The resentment feels like its reaching fever pitch.

I don't know what I'm doing here. I'm really sorry.

[BradSpeedMan 6]

I'm sorry. My simpleton mind doesn't register that question. I'll be banned by tomorrow, so it was nice knowing you. I'm just going to tell you that I appreciated your very kind words on my blog. Being strong sucks c#ck. I can't grieve, every one of my family is, but I can't. I have to keep it together. The resentment feels like its reaching fever pitch.

I don't know what I'm doing here. I'm really sorry.

Who says you need to be strong all the time? Sometimes you need to let out, so you can get it out of your system. It's like crying, you feel better afterwards, because you did what needed to be done. And I think we've build up enough of a rapport being friends who communicate daily, thats why we share things with each other.

I don't exactly know why I'm typing this....

[Caesar 0]

Who says you need to be strong all the time? Sometimes you need to let out, so you can get it out of your system. It's like crying, you feel better afterwards, because you did what needed to be done. And I think we've build up enough of a rapport being friends who communicate daily, thats why we share things with each other.

I don't exactly know why I'm typing this....

because it good thing to help...

and it is obvious... this is one of the Oprah moments at TF1.

or you just may be gay, we don't mind, gay is OK