USA: Villeneuve talks at the Indy press call

JV Speaks
By Phil Huff (26/09/2003)
September 26 2003

The FIA's Driver's press conference took place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway yesterday, and Lucky Strike BAR Honda star driver Jacques Villeneuve was in attendance. Here's what he had to say..

Jacques, you had a fairly good race at Monza as well. Was that encouraging?

Jacques Villeneuve: It was fun to finally have a race where we could show what we could do. The car lasted until the end, and we had no problems.

There have been fairly interesting ideas about how you're going to keep your drive with BAR, what are your feelings about those?

JV: You make it sound as if I'm begging to stay with the team. It's right now the team is looking to see if I'm the right driver for them; but on the other hand, I have to see if it's the right team for me as well.

Obviously, you've got a great following here in North America as you have for many, many years, this huge number of fans even in this room, as well. What can I tell them about your career for next year?

JV: Right now there's nothing exciting to say. Two more races to go, and that's all I know.

Jacques, every day there's a new rumor about you and that's picked up by the newspapers and magazines. Does that unsettle you or do you ignore that stuff about shootouts and Sato coming in and everything happening?

JV: Rumors are powerful, and sometimes they're rumors because people get bored and they hear something that a friend of them told them and so on. Sometimes they're created on purpose to push people in some direction or other. I don't really see much what is going on, but I'm being told most of the time what happens. But a lot of entertainment.

You know the cars and the competitors in the front row, could I ask you who do you think is going to be World Champion?

JV: For once it's very open so it's impossible to know. Obviously Kimi's car seems to have been a little bit less competitive in the second half of the season, but he's close enough that if the two guys in the front fight and go off then he will get all the points so it's quite open and that makes it exciting. I think it's great for F1.

Jacques, next year will the tenth anniversary of your victory in the 500, does it seem like that long ago, or does it seem that time has flown by?

JV: A lot has happened since then, but it's still a great memory, it's still fresh.

Jacques, one of the stories going around is that your attitude doesn't fit that of the team. You give 100 percent. How do you answer the critics that say that you don’t fit in with the teams, the way they work and so on?

JV: As I said before, rumours are created to make people believe things to clear your shoulders or whatever. I've never worked as hard as the last couple of years and also I've never had as little fun in racing as in the last two years. But my work ethics have been very good. If you ask anybody I work with then you will hear the real truth about that.

If you, personally, had the choice next year to keep one lap qualifying or go back to what it was last year, would you keep the one lap qualifying?

JV: It seems to have been good for the championship, so if it's good for F1, it's good for everybody.