Jacques Villeneuve will line up for the BMW Sauber F1 Team.

I was really hoping to see Wurz in that seat.

Carol

 

I am very happy to see Villeneuve in that seat. Hopefully the car will be competitive, and he will be fighting for wins. He is getting up there in age, so he doesn't have too many more years to race. His experience will greatly benefit the BMW Sauber team, much more so than any of the other names that were tossed around as potential drivers.

 

JV's contract (10 mio) and Wurz' height were the reasons that didn't happen according to Swiss Newspaper: http://www.blick.ch/sport/formel1/artikel28692

 

A few years back I used to like JV.... now I just wish he realized that his best yers are long gone. Nick is going to blow him away (no surprise though).

 

Although I agree with that, first they need an engine that allows them to do just that. It seems currently the BMW blows itself away.

 

lol....
Heidfled came out saying that he expected wins in '08 but did not comment on '06. May be he does not expect much of BMW's engine this year anyway.

 

Wow i'm a bit surprised at that too. JV gets a repreve. BMW must really not have wanted to pay off the contract. I think Heidfeld will smoke him too. When the engine isn't smoking

 

Wurz's wife is not Japanese. I think she is from the UK - she used to work for the Benetton team. You may be thinking of Alesi or Mika Salo.

 

Best news of the day!

 

I don't know about that. I think JV shook all of his rust off during the 1st half of last season, and started to get back into form. He should be able to continue that into the '06 season, and bring the fight to Heidfeld. It will be very interesting.

 

Maybe that was the case in the first part of the season but against Massa? I think Heidfeld will be a better test. I think JV has seen better days. His last few teammates, with the expection of Zonta, beat him pretty handily. I think the trend will continue.

 

Good insight, that is definitely what is behind this story.

I'm disappointed to see JV get this drive. His pace is nothing special and whatever experience he brings is overshadowed by his history of bad chemistry. Heidfeld is not a rookie anymore, he would play a good vet to a fast younger driver.

But as racerx points out, this was a money decision, not a talent/speed decision.

 

Yes and no: BMW wanted several other drivers (e.g. Kovalainen) but none worth their salt were available.

I bet BMW would have paid the $10 mio if they had found a worthy alternative. Otherwise they would have announced JV as the 2nd driver a long time ago.

 

I guess that's true, if Alonso or Kimi were made availabe i'm sure JV would have been shown the door. Still, He would have had some sort of role in the team. 10 mil is a lot of cheese.

 

Actually according to the newspaper article I mentioned below, the bar hung a lot lower than that:
Rosberg, Webber, Pizzonia, Kovalainen, Davidson, Wheldon

All these guys would have replaced him had there been a way to get them. That's how unwelcome JV is.

 

That's strange, i'm pretty sure Pizzonia is available. Sir Frank had released him from his testing role from what i heard. All the others have contracts here or there.

 

Jungle boy? One of the few drivers I'd pick JV over.

 

BMW actually does want JV.
JV gets on very well with his engineers and mechanics, he even won over Rampf to his side, who argued very hard in support of keeping JV.


The reason why it took so long to confirm JV, is because the contract had clauses in negotiating.


Why is JV staying..

- Villeneuve's improvement towards the end of the 2005 season. (Theissen said it)

- The fact that Villeneuve has been through the process of a team being bought and transformed into a new team. He knows the process, the pitfalls and the headaches.

- Continuity
Villeneuve will serve as a good comparison point to last year's machine and the engineers will know what to expect from him in terms of technical feedback

- Cost
Getting out of the contract, would have cost significant amounts of money.
What rookie, when you get right down to the heart of the matter, is worth that much more than Jacques Villeneuve? Is there someone out there who could conceivably be so much quicker that the team would finish even one rung higher on the constructor's table?




Wurz ...If he is so damn good how come he has been testing for McLaren all those years. Wurz, Montagny were to suppose to test for Midland in december. Won't happen because they have Albers and Monteiro.
How come austrian Dietrich Mateschitz didn't go get Wurz.
I like Wurz but maybe he isn't what I think he is.

 

You got that right. Wurz isn't that good and he is too tall for F1. I'm surprised Mc Laren even used him as a test driver given his height.

 

Thank god he is staying at least the guy has some personality. He only fell apart in his last season at BAR due to Dave Richards influencing the outcome in favor Jenson Button (who still has yet to win a race). Lets see JV was as quick or quicker than Damon Hill, probably David Coulthard who he replaced at Williams, HHF, and Zonta. So what if that little "Turd" Massa was quicker in the beginning of the season than JV, by the end of the season JV turned it around. All those other guys mentioned, (Wurz, Webber, Etc.) haven't done squat, at least JV won a WC and 11 Races with Hill and HHF as his teammates.

Lets see what happens against Nick, I personally think that although Heidfeld maybe quicker in qualifying, JV will have his measure during the races. I don't know why everyone is on the bandwagon to get him out of F1 so quick. Lets see what he does next season.

 

Wurz ...If he is so damn good how come he has been testing for McLaren all those years. Wurz, Montagny were to suppose to test for Midland in december. Won't happen because they have Albers and Monteiro.
How come austrian Dietrich Mateschitz didn't go get Wurz.
I like Wurz but maybe he isn't what I think he is.[/QUOTE]


I think Wurz's height and the fact that Ron Dennis pays him a boatload of money work against him getting a race seat. From financial standpoint why would you go to a crap team like midland and probably have to pay to finish last every race when you could have Ron pay you well and not even have to race? I know people will say well the whole point is to get into a race seat and that's true but i don't think he wants to drive a dog either. Monteiro Doesn't seem like anything special either. Albers is actually pretty impressive seems to have good car control and pretty quick hands, he should be in a better seat than Midland

 

Anybody driving a Midland or a Minardi must have reflexes like lightening. Ever watched how diabolically ill these things turn? It is frightening and worlds apart from the rest of the field. Karthekayan doesn't have those hands and it cost him.

 

Albers seems to have hands nearly as quick as Montoya's who's hands are fast as a boxer's. It's actually more fun watching the to tail enders fighting the car when it's a good one in the car, than a sweet handling car that looks so easy to drive. Albers impressed me last year, i'm sure i'm not the only who noticed. Also what ever happened to Bruni, he seemed to be okay as well.