http://www.rds.ca/cgi-bin/nouvelles?site=rdw&action=4&SPODIR=information&sport=#101501 (This is in french) Everywhere on the news in Montreal ..they're saying that JV will be testing a William F1 car the first week of June at Silverstone AND that he will be racing at the Canadian Grand Prix in the William. (replacing Ralf) This is only possible if current driver RS gives up the seat by himself. "In order to kick Ralf out, Williams must prove, that he is not performing," his manager Willi Weber said. "They will struggle to find an objective evidence for that in front of a court." ''Now there are suggestions, that Ralf might start his development work with Toyota this year, so that the Cologne based squad is better prepared in 2005. This in turn would open a spot for Villeneuve at Williams. '' Oh my god I hope I'm not dreaming right now!! Please let it happen!!!
Does that mean Ralf may take a spot in place of DaMatta or Panis? Seems silly to have someone as expensive as Ralf is reported to be, to be sitting on the sidelines whilethe race team continues to underperform, and fight below its weight....
Sounds more like a nightmare to me. JV needs to sit in the stands at the canadian GP sucking on his pacifier. He does not deserve to drive in F1 the way he acted and performed the last couple of years. Just MHO.
Check out www.grandprix.com and go to yesterdays articles about Ralf making trouble for himself. No hint of Jacques here. I, for one, have to agree with Beast. He has slowed down and now lets his emotions rule his actions........Not a good thing in F1.
so let me get this straight, you guys would rather watch the wannabe club of pantano, klien, bruni, etcetc ad nauseum, rather than have the only other former world champion currently willing and able to drive and make a real effort to take the fight to ferrari and produce some more exciting races? sorry, you are the ones who are emotionally unstable imho. give me jv over 70% of the rest of the grid any day.
Considering the source (Montreal newspaper) I'd take this rumor with a grain of salt. If they're trying to whip up some buzz before the Canadian GP, that is one thing but if Williams is actually willing to starting playing around with his driving lineup in mid-season (particularly bringing in the agitator Villeneuve) he stands to take big losses paying on driver's contracts. Until this comes from the mouth of Frank Williams in an official press conference with Villeneuve sitting next to him, file this under rumor. There are at least half a dozen drivers being mentioned for the Williams drives the most interesting of which would be Jeff Gordon. This would be the ideal win-win-win (Gordon-Williams-F1) situation. BHW
It just might happen. Ralf is very unhappy with Williams (and vice versa), his Toyota deal seems to be a done one and JV is ready as ever to jump into the Williams. Aside from that Bernie would love to have another WC on the grid. It just might happen and quite frankly I'd like to see it.
Jeff Gordon and JV at Williams in '05 would be great. JG has proven all he needs to in the turn-left series. The time off for JV may have changed him and made him a little more hungry. One experienced WC paired with a highly-skilled rookie (to F1). Of all the American drivers, if I were Bernie, JG would be the pick.
Talent is one thing but desire, commitment and pure hunger to win is what it really takes these days. I would say that JVs' driving skill is now a small part of the equation. If a driver wants to succeed today, he or she must commit 100% of their time to testing and development - garner a full understanding of the team and work as a team. Sorry, JV is a dinosaur. Showing up to drive and then playing video games in a million dollar bus while the mechanics fix the car worked 10 years ago. Any team would be foolish to take JV unless he came with a big check attached (see Minardi). M. Shumacher combines all of the elements of a successful driver coupled with a massive budget.
I agree but F1 needs to dump the talent thats just not cutting it and get proven or semi proven performers behind the wheel. Another season of JV is ok as long as he is on a good team and he performs. Too many young unproven drivers are making it too early. There is nothing that says over 33 or so in F1 is too old. MS isnt neither is DC, experience counts. More teams need to step up in terms of performance and design and employ good drivers to employ those better cars to make the show better. F1 is dumping experienced drivers for cheaper less talented drivers it seems. There are exceptions of course.
The negotiations between the pilot JV and Williams-BMW are concluded at 99 percent. This was at in ''La Presse'' a Montreal , Quebec newspaper. http://www.rds.ca/cgi-bin/nouvelles?site=rdw&action=4&SPODIR=information&sport=#101542 This is getting serious!!
Well excuse me Ross. All of us are allowed to have our own personal opinions and I am of the opinion that JV has passed his World Champion time and his attitude does not fall in line with what I would look for in a current one. He may be better than the current crop of second drivers but I still do not like him. I am entitled to that, just as you are entitled to really like him. I maintain my opinion. He is not a good choice for Williams although he might have been at one time. That is unless he can reinvent his attitude and bring back in some desire into his driving................................................
Indeed, Gordon would be the most interesting pick of the lot (imagine JV and JG as teammates) and there is no doubt he is an excellent and disciplined driver. A friend taught JG road racing techniques before he started turning right in the big cars and had nothing but good things to say. Driving those stock cars for so many years puts him in a very difficult position. His brain is simply not 'programmed' for something like an F1 car. It'll take far more than a BMW-sponsored test day at the Brickyard for JG to get up to speed. Today, pretty much any monkey can drive an F1 car today and a driver's ability to set up a car is much less a factor than it was, as witnessed by the influx of young drivers into the game. Data acquisition and analytics could help Gordon, but F1 cars are more related to a shifter kart than a Nextel cup car. Personally, I'd like to see the JV/JG pairing.
I totally agree, where has he been lately? What has he been doing? Nothing! and for good reason, sometimes someone should slap him and maybe he can regain his ability to drive and leave the sport in diginity rather than the shame he has brought on himself and his father's memory. He was good, that does not make him a has been, but after his lack of real race time over the last two years, is he all that competitive anymore? Seems to be getting fat on the sidelines more than anything. If he was not a total bastard he probably would have been given a ride over the Kleins, etc...
I agree completely - in fact, if Bernie was strategically investing, he should quietly subsidize Sir Frank to get Jeff on the Williams Team. This would go a long way to increasing the long term American market share. Jeff has proven himself in America and is just getting a check at this point.
I'm with Ross on this. JV is exactly what many F1 fans want to see more of. He's got more talent than half the grid today and doesn't kiss a$$ like so many other politically correct drivers do. I'm so tired of hearing F1 drivers who "dance" around a subject and never answer simple questions. The last thing we need is a post-race press conference with three different versions of Michael Schumacher, all blaming someone else for something they did. I could see Frank Williams taking JV back under the condition he (JV) pays for the remainder of Ralf's contract. It could work. Andy
Hehe. Glad to see, that I'm not the only one who gets annoyed by PR white washed comments in the press conference. For better or worse, JV would bring some color back into F1.
Does anyone remember when Lauda was going to drive the Jaguar in testing (2002?) to show his drivers how easy it was to drive a modern F1 car? The story died (or I wasn't paying attention), but my guess is that it wasn't as easy as ol' Niki thought it would be... As far as JG being acclimated only to stock cars, given a couple of months testing, he could adapt to F1 cars. He does very well on the few road race tracks the cup cars race on. I'm more inclined to believe that the influx of very young drivers has more to do with the sponsorship they bring than their talent, although there are of course exceptions. I can't claim to have driven an F1 car, but the aero effects are very non-linear. In addition to your brakes and tires changing over the course of a race, you have to also adapt to the available grip vs. speed due to aerodynamics. Driving one of these cars at 98% may be possible for many drivers, but getting to 100% is still only available to a small handful of masters.
Steve, Yes Lauda did drive the Jag and was about 3 seconds off the pace of his drivers - if I remember right. You figure 3 secs is a lifetime in F1, but I somehow think he could be a little closer with some practice! How many years had it been? I'd also put money that if he jumped into his WDC Ferrari, he would be 30 secs AHEAD of the same guys in HIS car! As far as JV is concerned, I say bring him on! The sooner the better! Yeah, he tends to speak his mind and pi$$ off the establishment, but he can drive. All those years at BAR(f) with no improvements in equipment, I'm surprised he was as calm as he was - not that he was!!! I remember watching him at the USGP at Indy the first year. He was fighting with someone (help me out here!) for something like 6th place and just could not quite get around. He finally got around on the straight by braking late but carried too much speed into the corner and wound up cutting the grass and losing a big chunk of time. You could tell that if he could have opened the floor up and Flintsoned it to make the pass, he would have! The in-car footage showed him wrestling with the POS BAR gave him to drive. I don't know how he was even able to attack. I gained a whole new respect for the guy that day, because I think they were racing for a pointless position. I also feel the guy he was trying to pass had twice the car, and that ability is what it takes to win WC's. Now we shall (hopefully) see if he still has that determination. Jim
