Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve is done with Formula One, not just as a driver, but now seemingly as a spectator as well.
The 40-year-old Canadian who last drove for BMW-Sauber in 2006, but has been linked to several possible comeback drives since then, said on Monday that he now had eyes only for NASCAR.
This weekend, when British fans will flock to Silverstone for their home Grand Prix and the hope of seeing McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button challenging for victory, Villeneuve will focus on something else.
“I don’t watch the races anymore. I’m done, for the first time ever,” he said at the Williams factory, the company that powered the Canadian to his 1997 title triumph. “I just can’t be bothered. Halfway through the race I’m yawning and its really tough ... and I just get upset.”
“When I see these guys not even being able to defend, like Michael [Schumacher] — he should have been on the podium in Montreal,” he said.
Former Indy 500 winner Villeneuve has been competing most recently in the NASCAR nationwide series with Penske Racing and he enthused about the experience.
“It’s so much fun. It reminds me of why I got into racing in the first place,” he said. “You get in the car and you are there to do your race and nothing will get in the way of that, not regulations, nothing. It’s amazing. It’s human against human, beast against beast. It’s great. You can muscle your way through, you can work around problems, I love it.”
The big problem with Formula One, the bespectacled Canadian said, was overtaking. Not the lack of it, but too much thanks to the drag reduction system (DRS) which has introduced a new element this season.
Villeneuve, whose late father, Gilles, won the enduring affection of Ferrari fans both for his racing passion and his ability to beat faster cars by keeping them at bay for lap after lap, said DRS should never have been allowed.
“I really don’t care to see overtaking with DRS,” he said. “I prefer to see Lewis going for it and sometimes it ends in tears, but at least it’s fun. All the other overtaking with the DRS, I’m just falling asleep ... useless, boring, it’s not even racing.”
“I don’t understand why that thing is on an F1 car right now,” the Canadian said. “People now think: ‘Oh, he’s going to overtake me. Why bother?’ And that’s it. No excitement. Nothing.”
Villeneuve was defensive of Hamilton, who has repeatedly fallen foul of stewards this season after controversial collisions.
The Canadian, who had several run-ins with Schumacher when the seven-time champion was at Ferrari, including the notorious 1997 season-ender that led to the German being excluded from the standings, said officials should focus on the real offenders.
“F1 is giving penalties for people making mistakes instead of for people driving dirty,” he said, his comments perhaps reflecting a lack of recent viewing. “And that is wrong. Mistakes happen. You run into each other, that’s life, that’s racing and too bad. Then you see a lot of weaving and nasty stuff happening and there’s no penalties for that. That’s where it’s wrong.”
“Lewis is racing very aggressively and he forgets to use his head once in a while, so he ends up crashing into people, but that should not be stopped, it’s racing. That’s what you want to see: battles,” he said. “If every time someone tries to do that there’s a penalty, what’s the point? You need to let the drivers go for it and if they bang wheels, too bad. It’s fun, it’s a good show, the fans are up in the grandstands, and they can scream and shout about it ... that’s good, that’s what you want.”
Villeneuve had little time for a suggestion by Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone that world champion Sebastian Vettel’s wins for Red Bull this season meant more than Schumacher’s because of the quality of the opposition lined up against him.
There are five world champions on the current grid, including Schumacher in his comeback with Mercedes at the grand old age of 42.
“Vettel is fighting no-one right now. If you look at it, anytime Vettel has to fight someone he collapses. Look at Montreal,” Villeneuve said.
The 24-year-old German lost that epic race in Canada to Button after making a mistake on the final lap as the McLaren driver was bearing down on him.
“[Red Bull teammate] Mark [Webber] has collapsed and the whole team has taken a step forward, so he’s in a world of his own. He’s super-fast, he’s faster and stronger than he was last year, and when you are on a cloud like that it’s very hard for things to go wrong,” the former champion said. “Unless something really bad happens, I don’t see how he could lose a championship this year. Maybe he could lose his marbles, I don’t know.”
Meanwhile, former world champion Nigel Mansell said Hamilton should stick with his McLaren Formula One team rather than be tempted by a possible move to Red Bull.
The Briton, one of the stewards at Silverstone this weekend for his and Hamilton’s home Grand Prix, was happy to offer a few words of advice to his compatriot for both Sunday’s race and his future.
“Lewis has had an amazing career with McLaren,” he said of the 2008 world champion, who continues to be linked in paddock speculation to a possible move away from Woking to the reigning champions in Milton Keynes. “I think Michael Schumacher proved with staying with Ferrari, that if you can have the support of the team totally behind you, [you] build on that year-on-year.”
“He [Hamilton] hasn’t exactly had a drought,” the 1992 champion said. “I think McLaren are a fantastic team. Personally, I would stay with McLaren and all the people who have supported him through thick and thin. It might be a mistake if he changes teams.”
Hamilton, 26, has been backed by McLaren for well over a decade and nearly won the title in his 2007 debut season.
This year he has won one race, in China, to six out of eight for Red Bull’s runaway championship leader and reigning champion Vettel.
The McLaren driver has also been in more controversies and scrapes than any other driver on the starting grid.
Mansell, who will be running the rule over all the drivers, said Hamilton did not need to change his mindset, but that he could improve his timing.
“Lewis is a racer, he’s a fighter. The thing he hasn’t got quite right is when you pass people just try not to knock them off,” the 57-year-old said. “That’s the only thing. Still go for the gaps, but give them a little room and don’t do it on corners where there’s no recovery. People are there to race just like he is. He’s a great racer and he’s just got to get a bit more right than what he has done in the past few races.”
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