What are Jacques Villeneuve's thoughts on BAR's success?

[nojvnof1 0]

This question has been gnawing away at me and now he's come out and spoken. Apparently there was an interview with Jock Clear on the website

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/f1-cart/a...04,655184.shtml and here is tha answer.

The article was originally in French but it's been put through a translating thing on the net, hence the poor English, but you can get the main gist of it. So here goes.

Jacques is happy to this that arrives to Jenson

Cyberpresse and St

[Senna 0]

Hopefully, BAR Honda will realise that if they want to become an ultra competitive racing outfit – that is to say be able to beat Ferrari consistently – they will need two good drivers. Jenson set an excellent lap time (1m19.753s) in qualifying and has been rightly praised for his performance however Takuma Sato drove the same car and was 1.2 sec down on Jenson’s time and some five cars behind him on the grid – that simply isn’t good enough.

I hope that Dave Richards looks closely at Sato’s performance, as he said he would at the midpoint of the season, and decides that it would further BAR’s progression to replace him with Jacques Villeneuve. I cant see this happening myself but it must bode well for him that, as the article suggests, he has many friends left at BAR and Lucky Strike who would love to see him return. If Sato continues to put in poor performances, it can only strengthen Jacques’ chances.

[C.A.L. 0]

Sato has cost the Team some 3 points easy , and this race is tough and to me he has to hold on to the piddly 7th (2pts) or at least 6th to say he is still keeping his weight up.

After this race with 6th would be bare minimum or its more lost points and Williams do not look to be easy to get by ,and Aloseone is up on the grid this time around and again Kimi is at the back and Coultard did stupid on his qualifing run.

This all ads to Sato back at 8th in reality ... not there at all.

[Redline 0]

What are Jacques Villeneuve's thoughts.........

I did'nt know he could do "thinking" !

[nojvnof1 0]

Hopefully, BAR Honda will realise that if they want to become an ultra competitive racing outfit

[amjay 0]

What are Jacques Villeneuve's thoughts.........

I did'nt know he could do "thinking" !

well now you know...

[Senna 0]

I wouldn’t say that the prospect of Villeneuve returning to BAR is nil. It is rather unlikely of course but we must remember that many of BAR’s key sponsors, Lucky Strike in particular, were very unhappy that Takuma Sato was replacing the 1997 World Champion last year. Further more, given Sato’s pace in relation to Button throughout this season, many insiders within BAR must be questioning Sato role within the team.

At Imola, Button beat Schumacher to the pole and out qualified his teammate by 1.2 seconds. Button was also able to race with Schumacher for the first stint of the race and finished a very respectable second place. Sato had yet another uninspiring race.

If Jacques Villeneuve was in the second BAR I believe they would have two cars on the podium at Imola and would subsequently perform much better in both World Championships…if only Dave Richards realised this.

[Sato 0]

Sato had yet another uninspiring race.

Did anyone else see sato get smashed by reno from behind thanx to DC?....maybe could of affected him...not that he would of been fantastic today...but still....

[Senna 0]

If I were Dave Richards I would replace Sato next year with one of the following: Jacques Villeneuve, David Coulthard, Olivier Panis (if released from Toyota) or Alex Wurz.

[Sato 0]

the only one in that list who i think should be there ahead of sato is Wurz....

and he probly shouldn't either...how old is he these days?....With Sato...he isn't fastest in the world and dooes have mistakes....but You can see he has got better...Imola was disapoint kos it was a step backwards IMO. But he is young'ish and could improve if he and the team are pre paired to work with him the best they can...I believe Sato could be a fairly good driver...he does have some good potential.

[Senna 0]

Sato has not done a good enough job for BAR Honda at any of the race so far this season. He may well improve but I doubt he will reach a satisfactory level of performance and I also doubt whether he will be able to improve quickly enough. Any of the aforementioned drivers would do a far better job than Sato and would be able to keep pace with Button. I suspect though that if Sato were to be replaced Honda might loose some interest and their engines may suffer…

[Sato 0]

well yeah, its not reall a secret that Sato is there because of Honda....so getting rid of him won't get them a better engine that is for sure.

But seriously all the guys u named are getting on in years...sato is young'ish....he might not be the next WDC...but i think he could be solid by the end of the season.

[Senna 0]

All the drivers I have suggested, apart from Olivier Panis, are younger than Michael Schumacher and all, apart from Alex Wurz, are previous race winners.

[C.A.L. 0]

Sato has cost the Team some 3 points easy , and this race is tough and to me he has to hold on to the piddly 7th (2pts) or at least 6th to say he is still keeping his weight up.

After this race with 6th would be bare minimum or its more lost points and Williams do not look to be easy to get by ,and Aloseone is up on the grid this time around and again Kimi is at the back and Coultard did stupid on his qualifing run.  

This all ads to Sato back at 8th in reality ... not there at all.

Not to toot my own Horn , but I called it straight up .... so what is the difference in sponsorship funding having finished a season in 2nd or 4th?

Lucky Strike and B.A.R. are the ones throwing away their money now not Jacques.

[nojvnof1 0]

I wouldn

[igillman 0]

Dave Richards and Honda will have to live with the fact that by replacing JV with Sato, they have condemned BAR to 4th in the constructors championship or 3rd at best.

BAR would be alone in 2nd place right now if JV were still teamed with Button. It's safe to assume that Renault and Williams will consistently continue to put 2 cars in the points most races.

As an example, at Imola, even with JB finishing 2nd, BAR gained NO ground on Williams, and LOST ground (1 point) to Renault. At best, had Sato's Honda held up, they would have held even with Renault and gained a single point on Williams. Even this might have been different had RS not had that incident with Alonso.

What's amazing is that in the first stint, MS and JB were lapping almost 2 seconds/lap faster than the rest of the field! Sato was holding up the field from 4th after his good start until they all passed him during the first round of pitstops.

[Taku 0]

What's amazing is that in the first stint, MS and JB were lapping almost 2 seconds/lap faster than the rest of the field!  Sato was holding up the field from 4th after his good start until they all passed him during the first round of pitstops.

its good that you acknowledge that he did well to gain 3 places at the start to get into that position. someone said before that sato made an error with his set-up in quali, with the ride height being too high. being in parc ferme post-quali, this error gets trasferred to the race, so that would explain why he held up the other cars. he then had gearbox troubles throughout the race, before the engine blew due to the same troubles.

admittedly he didn't take a step forward after bahrain, but barcelona is promising for bar as a whole.

[C.A.L. 0]

You know people with hindsight of course , this year B.A.R. could even take 1st in the Constructors should they get Jacques back into the car real soon.

Can you imagine Button & Villeneuve taking pole or the the top 4 positions in general most races and hopefully ending up ahead of Bowl-of-jello at races end in particular That would almost negate M.SCHum.'s advantages should he finish ahead.

They would out point the Ferrari Team and could easily get up to 2nd and push Ferrari right to the end with more points . I believe they ought to give it a try because its this year that B.A.R. has made the surprising jump on Williams and Renault while McLaren has dropped out in a big bad way.

2nd or even a further 1st is up for grabs should M.SCHum. have a DNF or two. 1st Richards was saying J.V. was being selfish and greedy ...now others can say getting rid of J.V. was for greed/money needs ...but now they need him back for the future Money needs or greeds ,more importantly is Jacques Villeneuve has the SPEEDS.

[nojvnof1 0]

You know people with hindsight of course , this year B.A.R. could even take 1st in the Constructors should they get Jacques back into the car real soon.

Can you imagine Button & Villeneuve taking pole or the the top 4 positions in general most races and hopefully ending up ahead of Bowl-of-jello at races end in particular    That would almost negate M.SCHum.'s advantages should he finish ahead.  

They would out point the Ferrari Team and could easily get up to 2nd and push Ferrari right to the end with more points . I believe they ought to give it a try because its this year that B.A.R. has made the surprising jump on Williams and Renault while McLaren has dropped out in a big bad way.  

2nd or even a further 1st is up for grabs should M.SCHum. have a DNF or two.  1st Richards was saying J.V. was being selfish and greedy ...now others can say getting rid of J.V. was for greed/money needs ...but now they need him back for the future Money needs or greeds ,more importantly is Jacques Villeneuve has the SPEEDS.

Would be nice to see what Jacques would have accomplished with this car. DR is now experiencing karma my friend, what goes around comes around, and now he's paying for getting rid of JV in such a dirty and disgraceful manner. Not for getting rid of him, but for the way he did it and to this day continues to gloat about it as if he's discovered how to gain a second a lap on Ferrari.

[webber 0]

well thay can have a good honda engine or JV. now which whould u wont

[nojvnof1 0]

well thay can have a good honda engine or JV. now which whould u wont

both!! Besides, what's the point of having a good honda engine when one of the drivers is wasting the car. JV drove well in sh!tboxes from 99-02 so I don't know.

[C.A.L. 0]

well thay can have a good honda engine or JV. now which whould u wont

I think they could of produced two stable cars last year but messed up big and bad on purpose with J.V.'s car last year to prod him out with a look of leverage. I am still waiting for the Stearing wheel to go out on Button's car or the car not even to start from the warm up lap ...what sh*t.

They have a good engine what...all of a sudden like ? or is it they are concentrating all effort on Button and the second car is and will always be the grade "B" unit no matter whom drives it. Very unprofessional ...expect to beat the other Teams with a half wit effort ? will not happen.

The real stark reality is they have no option except to replace Sato or throw more millions away and 2nd in the Constructors out the window.

What happens should Button crash ? out for two races....or Sato ...its gets worse now for Sato in the next race as I think this one is where guys like Ralf and Coultard ,Aloseone will be settled and are going to usually qualify decent and well ...the open window is closing fast and Richards better improve his own golf swing ,can hardly wait to see it rain and the "talk time" with sato turns into the "Talk of the Town"