Where next for Jacques Villeneuve?

Looking for a job
By Phil Huff (04/10/2003)
October 5 2003

With Jacques Villeneuve being dropped from Lucky Strike BAR Honda for 2004, what are his options? Formula One? NASCAR? Le Mans? Retirement?

Staying in Formula One would be very difficult for Villeneuve. Most seats have been filled, and what remains isn't the cream of the crop. Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Renault, Sauber and Toyota are all full. There are two seats left at Minardi and Jordan, and one at Jaguar, and it's the yellow option that may prove to be Villeneuve's best chance of staying in F1.

Despite offering to drive for free, with performance related bonuses, Jaguar bosses have refused to take the Canadian on board. While Minardi may step forward by using the old Arrows chassis, Jacques won't want to go too far down the grid.

Jordan need a headline driver to attract the sponsors they so desperately need, and having Jacques driving is guaranteed to generate the headlines. However, the package at Jordan is lacking, with an under developed chassis, lack of budget, and a customer engine.

Outside of Formula One there's NASCAR, something Jacques has said would be fun, but here at BAR-Talk we don't see anything beyond a guest drive.

No driver has ever won the Indy 500, CART, Formula One, and Le Mans, so what are the chances of Jacques going after that record? It may not be the full time F1 drive he craves, but it'll be another entry in the record books.

At the moment, though, nobody knows. Least of all Jacques himself.