Villeneuve's 2004 season is BAR or bust

BAR or bust
By Phil Huff (05/08/2003)
August 7 2003

It looks increasingly likely that Jacques Villeneuve will either remain at Lucky Strike BAR Honda for 2004, or step down from F1 altogether.

With Williams keeping hold of both of their drivers for 2004, along with Renault and Toyota, and there simply being no job available at Ferrari, Jacques is running out of options. The PR intensive team at McLaren would be unlikely to recruit Villeneuve over Coulthard, that leaves just Sauber, Jordan, Jaguar, Minardi, or BAR.

It's rumoured, however, that Takuma Sato will now definitely be taking the BAR seat alongside Jenson Button, and that Villeneuve's manager, Craig Pollock, was informed of this some time ago. Everybody has sat on the information in order to keep Villeneuve's value up, but there simply aren't any high paying seats available.

Of course, in recent months both David Richards and Jenson Button have praised Villeneuve's efforts, and F1 contracts are notoriously flaky. Sato shouldn't relax until Melbourne 2004.