Jacques attends press conference

By role
September 24 2004

Canadian driver Jacques Villeneuve attended his press conference at the Chinese Grand Prix and explained in detail his thoughts about the track, Renault, Alonso, Sauber and Massa.

Q: I would like to ask you about the track but first of all can I ask you about the sights you have seen. When did you arrive in China? What did you see? What have you done? What do you think of Shanghai? What do you think of China? What do you think of the people?

Jacques VILLENEUVE: I didn’t see the town. I got here Tuesday evening and I have been at the track since, getting ready. The track itself is gorgeous. Maybe it’s because it’s the first time I have raced this year, but it is a very, very beautiful track.

Q: Can you tell us a bit more about the track, the overtaking spots and so on?

JV: There are a few heavy breaking (areas) and there’s high-speed, low-speed corners, good rhythm, even a bit of a banked corner, a little bit of everything. You never see that any more on the new tracks. This track has a layout more like the old tracks, just with the wall pushed out.

Q: Jacques, you tested at Silverstone, but tell us how your first day back in action in competition went?

JV: It feels like being back home. Good. The team is working well. They all made it very easy for me to come back and work, they made me comfortable, and it is a team with no pressure, no stress, and we can just get down to working. This morning was mainly getting used to layout, where the limit of the car is and covering the track at the same time so there was a lot to do and it seems to be going well.

Q: You are quite close to Alonso, does that please you?

JV: Yeah, it is always good to be close to your team-mate, so that’s good. It took a while to get there, though, but I can use the benchmark from my team-mate and work from that.

Q: Physically, how are you feeling? Things like your neck, you can’t really train for those sorts of g-forces can you?

JV: I have been training hard since March and it seems to be okay. We did 45 laps today, which is almost a race, and there is no problem.

Q: Jacques, yesterday you talked about being mellower now than you were a few years ago. Can you just expand on that?

JV: When you have a year at home, whatever it is you are doing you relax. I have been in racing since I was 17, almost every day with two months off once in a while, but there were always pressures, and the last few years have been very difficult, political and so on. It was just great to be able to sit down and relax. It allows me to come back with a lot of positive energy.

Q: In Felipe Massa’s rookie season, you were critical of him…

JV: I was critical of many people!

Q: But he is going to be your team-mate next year. How is it going to go with him?

JV: I was critical in the first season and everyone in the first season has to learn and you make mistakes. There is nothing wrong with criticising mistakes as long as people learn and he seems to be doing a very good job now, he doesn’t annoy anybody or anything, and it will be quite good. He has a lot of experience, he tested Ferrari and he has been driving with the Sauber team for quite a while so it will be great.

Q: (James Allen – ITV) Looking at the TV pictures and incident reports, it looked like T16 was where most people were going off the road in the two sessions. Is that the most difficult corner to get right, and if not, which corners have you particularly been working on today?

JV: Yeah, like Rubens said, the visibility of the last corner is a little bit difficult to see where the corner is and also it’s a short corner so there is no room for error. All the other corners you can run wide, brake too late and still stay on the track but in the last corner you’ll just go off. The hard corner is turn one and two.

Q: (Jacques Deschenaux - TSR) Jacques, when the deal between yourself and Renault was revealed it was almost the same time as the one with Sauber. What was the reaction of Peter Sauber when he was informed?

JV: He was aware of everything going on and he agreed to it. If not, I would not have done it.

Q: (Jean Francois Begin – La Presse) Rubens and Juan, how much of a challenge do you think it is for Jacques to come into the championship with three races to go?

RB: Well, he’s been around and he knows what he has to do. It is just what he mentioned now, being out of the car is quite a tough thing because you can try to do anything out the car but it is not the same as driving. So, if it is not a problem physically, it is not a problem.

JPM: I think he should do pretty good. I think this year will really get him into shape for next year.

Q: (Jacques Schulz - Premiere) Jacques, what is the difference between driving the last race with the generation 03 car and being here with the Renault of 04. Is there a big difference?

JV: This is a beginning instead of an end, so that is already a lot more positive. I had been in a situation where it was a long tunnel and you didn’t see the light and it just seemed to get worse every day. There were a lot of other things going on that made it difficult, driving wasn’t the hard part it was everything else around it. Right now it’s like being in the first race in 1996.

Q: (Jacques Schulz) Considering we have a situation that there are three cars for each team next year, now you are contracted to Sauber when you could have four or five different opportunities. Was it a wrong choice?

JV: It would purely depend on the budget and who the third driver would be.

Q: (Luc Domenjoz – Le Matin) Driving a Sauber car that will probably not be able to win a Grand Prix, where you will find the motivation?

JV: I drove for five years in a bad situation and the motivation was there. I am sure that next year will be a very positive atmosphere and that is what will make the difference. Just see the step that BAR made this year, anything is possible. You never know what will happen. But I am not even thinking about next year right now, there is enough work to do in the next month. But I am happy about next year.

Q: (Jacques Deschenaux) Jacques, what was your feeling to see BAR improving this year?

JV: It depends who I was thinking about. I was very happy to see Jenson doing well, I was happy for the guys who had been there for a long time, and a lot of the work we had done over the last five years and finally it was producing results and there was pride in that. Of course, there is also a little part of me that would be a little bit unhappy that it was someone else getting the points.

Q: (Jacques Deschenaux) What was the reason for this extremely high improvement?

JV: It takes everything, you need the car, the engine, the tyres, the drivers, the team, and after the season Jenson did last year he was very comfortable this year and he could be aggressive from the start of the season and it all worked well.

Q: (James Allen) Jacques, what was the overriding emotion for you, sitting outside Formula One for such a long time, leaving aside the whole BAR element, just not being in Formula One. And did you believe that you would get back here and you would work again in Formula One?

JV: What was great was I could watch a race from start to finish and not because my car had broken down! That was quite good! Did I think I could come back? Yeah, because I started training since March and when you train and don’t have a drive there is a big pain, so somewhere you have got to believe you are coming back.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sports News) Jacques, obviously you are looking forward to racing in all the races next year, but just from the North American perspective, you have a large amount of fans back in Montreal and Indianapolis. Are you looking forward to racing again in the US and Canadian Grands Prix next year in front of all those fans?

JV: It will be great. It is so far away right now, but there is always great memories of Indianapolis and Montreal is my home race.

Q: (Luc Domenjoz) Now you are back, do you think you will be back for many years and will you use Sauber as a springboard to another team?

JV: I have never used one team against another. Some people say I signed too early and I could have raised my value by waiting but that it is not something I wanted to do, it’s not the right way to work, so that is not my thought process right now.