Has Jv Finally Silenced His Critics?

[Monty 0]

With his limted testing in the car, and an inferior car comparitively, and JV comes out on top.

Is this enough for the critics, or are there still some who wants his head?

[Taku 0]

q: Has Jv Finally Silenced His Critics?

a: only for a second. it will lower their volume temporarily, but never silence them. that's just the way it is for some drivers who have their doubters.

[Kay 0]

He drove well yes, but it will take until he is consistantly driving well until critics are silenced...

[Sato 0]

Surely they can't be calling for his head inbetween here and Spain though. He drove very well.

[Taku 0]

you'd be surprised.

no i think jv is definitely safe for now, as long as he can back it up at spain.

i remember spain was one of the most boring races last year, but i have a feeling it won't be as boring as last year's race.

[YHR 0]

No one who knew anything about F1 was questioning JV's commitment, and other then press wags no one said a bad word about him.

To say anything about him now, would just call into question a person's knowledge about competitve driving.

[Jenson_Rules 0]

Jv, much to my dislike put in a stirling effort today. It will silence his critics for a week but he will sooin come under fire again i expect!!!

Yes i too am loooking forward to spain

[Shadow 0]

his critics will never rest i can assure you that. they will always find something or the other mark you.

[bajo39 0]

JV wil always be up for criticism. In fact, even I will crticise him if he is not regularly beating Massa by mid-season. The fact that the team now accepts that JV knows more about how to setup a car to be quick than some pinhead engineer on a computer bodes well for his continued success.

[Senna 0]

With his limted testing in the car, and an inferior car comparitively, and JV comes out on top.

Is this enough for the critics, or are there still some who wants his head?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That

[AutoRacer5 0]

Came out on top of his teammate, you know that. The thing that intrigues me is how Massa didn't score any points at all, most of his gains were due to others misfortunes, eg. Kimi, Fisi, Rubens, etc.

[YHR 0]

That

[Max Mosley 2]

He did enough to silence me until Barcelona but I still think he should have done better in the earlier races given the experience he has had with the car up until now. I don't want to criticise him after a much improved performance but lets not get carried away and forget he still must improve more because he was still slower than Massa. But yes he was a lot better.

[YHR 0]

He did enough to silence me until Barcelona but I still think he should have done better in the earlier races given the experience he has had with the car up until now.  I don't want to criticise him after a much improved performance but lets not get carried away and forget he still must improve more because he was still slower than Massa.  But yes he was a lot better.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

IMO the real test starts now. He demonstated to his engineers what he needs to drive competitively. Once this is mapped, they will be starting from a better position going forward.

I am impressed with what Sauber has done with just the wind tunnel work. When you compare their testing time to those of the big teams and then to see the performance of both of their cars, it is truly noteworthy.

Imagine if Massa wouldn't have suffered the engine failure. It is quite possible both of their cars would have been in the points. The whole Sauber team can take a lot out of Imola.

[Max Mosley 2]

Yes they made a big leap forward but I don't expect them to be quite so competitive all the time.

[C.A.L. 0]

Yes they made a big leap forward but I don't expect them to be quite so competitive all the time.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Sauber Team was and is still doing better on the twisty tracks like this tough Imola course as they stated in the early testing.

J.V. benefitted from a good jump at the start gaining three spots while his car had two laps more fuel on board than most of his near rivals except Wurz. He kept his cool and maintained his good leap up to the front with good pace , that in its self is very positive.

The fact that he was able to show opportune passing on Webber and also making mention he was even thinking of jumping Wurz shows how he is hungry for way more is another positive. This while Massa is bumping at the back with D.C. ....where are the negative people for that on Massa ? (oh it's not J.V. so ignore it )

Now coupled that with the fact that he did without question stay there in 6th on continued good pace and maintained being ahead of BOTH Toyotas & Williams & Red Bulls means at least at twisty tracks the Sauber have presently the pace on those drivers and teams.

BARF1 came up big in the results too and you can see the large gap of 29 seconds he was still behind Sato ...Massa I doubt would of made that up either , so the car was driven very well today under the conditions and maybe even if had J.V. did much better in the qualifing to have grid position it would not of shown any better on the track today.

Now had BARF1 lost a car or someone else like when 6 cars went out in the last race while Massa was doing better J.V. would of scored maybe a 4th. Right now that is what the Team should consider the short term top end until they get some better speed developed.

Will both Ferrari's/BARF1's/Renault's still be reliable ? ..hmm.... Sauber needs to push their effort on the engine even more ....risk it a bit , try new things for J.V. (again) and test more ..way more again for at least J.V. .....with BOTH Sauber drivers in the top ten group they can BOTH score while pushing back the near battling teams from getting the nibble points.

Sauber optimumially so far over the season could of scored a few extra points ,but not more than 3 pts anyways in my opinion.

Good news is the team is encouraged and has options that do work when given the try even when not tested fully. Large potential still to explore.

Got to know what type of tire compounds were taken by Sauber/Williams/Toyota/Red Bull comparatively ...Next race J.V. gets the new engine .

The Critics should shut up for awhile ....4 th race into the season and he scored points , that is already one race ahead of last year's Fishichella's results .

[Taku 0]

He did enough to silence me until Barcelona

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

enough said.

i think it's fair that the heat is off until barcelona now, especially since there were strong rumours that imola could have even been his last gp.

[Shadow 0]

Something for the critics

From F-1 raing.net

Villeneuve relieves pressure

Jacques Villeneuve sighed with temporary relief on Sunday after finishing sixth in the San Marino Grand Prix. It was his first points-scoring finish in a poor start to the 2005 season and came at just the time when speculation was mounting that he might be replaced in the Sauber team.

"I am very happy because it has been a hell of a time since the beginning of the season and this will just make working a hell of a lot easier now," said Villeneuve, who won the drivers' title with the Williams team in 1997.

"It was not a question of proving anything. Another week or two, one bad race or one bad day and everything will be bad again, the rumours will start again, and everything like that, you know. I don't think it changes much, but it makes life a lot easier for the future and also, internally, with the team, it will make it easier to work.

"It was not only a full race it was a race where the car worked the whole race, you could be aggressive and work on the strategies and everything and it was fun."

But he warned that he did not expect his happiness to last long. When asked about his prospects for the next race, the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona in two weeks, he said: "We were quite slow in Barcelona, it is a different type of track, but we had the new aero here and hopefully it will be very good in Barcelona as well."

Team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa was not so happy. After a tough race, he launched into heavy criticism of Briton David Coulthard for being too aggressive.

"I tried to overtake him many times. I was even completely alongside and he just drove me into the dirt. I tried again many times. Once I tried but he just closed the door and I couldn't stop so I lost my front wing. The second time I caught him and I was already on his side, he closed the door and we touched. For me it was too much, I was two or three seconds quicker than him, I didn't see the point in closing the door."

Asked about Villeneuve, Massa said: "He's got some points. We have a very good car. He was in a good position at the start. I was supposed to be in the top seven. For me it was really possible to be in the top four because our pace, and especially my pace, made it really possible to do something really good in this race.

"He has got more confident, he knows the car a bit more and he can do a better job. But if you compare our pace in the race I was able to do a really good result."

Source AFP

[nojvnof1 0]

Well Sauber have a test at Fiorano from 26-28 of April, which is tomorrow (Tuesday) until Thursday. Don't know who will drive which days though.

On Jacques, words cannot describe how great it was to see JV at such a high. I honestly haven't seen him drive so well in a fairly long time. The team at Hinwil have done a fantastic job and it seems JV is lifting his game as well. Now he's got the engineers and Peter on side, JV should be able to have Felipe's measure from now on, and if behind, only by about .2 or .3 which is acceptable for any team in my opinion. JV made a brilliant start (reminded me of his starts from 2000), kept with the likes of Wurz, Sato, Trulli, Webber and held Rubens off, passed MW (after he pressured him into a mistake), and jumped JT in the pits, and proceeded to pull away from him. I'd say JV's drive was 3rd best behind M$ and FA. JB, TS and AW all did great jobs, but they pretty much did as was expected. This drive has basically kept his seat safe for quite a few races I feel.

As for the critics, I'll give it...oh...a day or two, the things will be business as usual, but for the next two weeks, I'm gonna live this up. I never thought I'd be so happy with P6, but the way he drove, and his competitivenss, and all the things that have happened over the past few months, I'm one happy Villeneuve fan!!

[Taku 0]

yep it was a very good drive from jv. criticism should die down for a couple days at least

[ecapdeville 0]

enough said. 

i think it's fair that the heat is off until barcelona now, especially since there were strong rumours that imola could have even been his last gp.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Come on Jaques! show you still can give good races!

[nojvnof1 0]

hopefully Imola was just the first of many.