Villeneuve: I was wrong: Button's better than Kimi

By Phil Huff
February 19 2007

Former world champion, and ex-BAR-Honda driver, Jacques Villeneuve, has admitted that Jenson Button didn't deserve many of the things he said back in 2003.

Speaking to F1 Racing magazine, which should hit the shops tomorrow, Villeneuve said "there were a couple of quotes about Jenson that I said back in 2003 where I thought 'Ouch! That didn't come out too well!'

"Jenson didn't deserve that," he continued. "Some of the things I said were a little bit too harsh and a couple shouldn't have been said at all."

One such comment may be when he said that "the team prefer me for the in-car activity which is racing hard. He [Button] brings to the sport what the boy bands bring to music. He is young and cute which is not bad, I guess, for the girls."

Jacques now reasons that it was outside pressure almost forcing him to say that. "I'd built the team," explains Villeneuve, "and suddenly a new team principal was saying, "We don't want Jacques, he's useless - we've got a future World Champion in Jenson." Jenson had done nothing at the time and had had his ass kicked by Fisichella at Benetton.

"So mainly I was saying let's just wait and see - I'll respect him once he achieves something. And he did, so I did. It wasn't as bad as it was portrayed and there was never a problem between us."

While there genuinely wasn't a problem between the two drivers, it was easy to assume such a case from outside. BAR was a very turbulent place in 2003, and there's no doubts that Villeneuve had fallen out of favour with the new regime at Prodrive. However, some may say that Villeneuve sealed his own fate, claiming in early 2003 that "I don't care about Jenson! Jenson hasn't done anything yet. I don't see him as the new guy to beat; if I don't beat him, I'd better stay home because that would mean that I don't belong in F1.

"They say it'll be tough for me, that I need to step up my game, that it'll be a dog fight. I find this insulting, people are putting us on equal footing! I don't see why I should go down to his level."

At the end of that year Jacques was left without a Formula One contract, and facing the prospect of a forced early retirement. A lifeline was thrown to him in late 2004 by Renault, before he joined Sauber for 2005, becoming a BMW-Sauber driver in 2006. This relationship fell apart in similar circumstances to 2003, with the Canadian leaving before the end of the season and again ending up without an F1 contract.

After losing out to Button, and seeing the Briton take his first win in 2006, Villeneuve has changed his stance somewhat. "He's fast, strong, and nothing disturbs him," says the 1997 world champion, "but he'll have to be in a position to take a shot at the championship if we're to see if he's as good as Alonso.

"That's highly probable, because he's at least as good as Kimi."

Is that a compliment for Button, or an insult to Raikkonen?