Out of these “conspiracies” and rumours about drivers seats very few will have a chance to even make it to the papers, or to the computer screens via internet sites. So this weekend we all had our load of potential moves, from Ralf Schumacher to Fisichella, from Pizzonia to Ralph Firman, from Jacques Villeneuve to Jarno Trulli. They are all drivers that are trying their best at their current post and that they know that their margin of error is always slim.

One of the rumours, and that quite surprisingly has made it to the front page of many respected F1 sites, was the talks that could have taken place between Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore and Canadian F1 driver Jacques Villeneuve for a seat in Renault in 2004.

The name of Villeneuve is constantly on the sites. His outspoken nature, and the fact that he is the only World Driver Champion left on the grid, ban Schumacher, has become a constant source for F1 writers avid of filling net space. Make no mistake, people in this industry love the sport, and they can’t stop writing about it.

We have to add the fact that other outspoken personalities are out of F1. Eddie Irvine was a favourite of the press, he always had something nasty to say of his team or of his teammate and, make no mistake, a driver bashing other people make great news. Irvine is still bashing his old team, other teams, his old teammate and other drivers on his weekly column of the Sun. But hey, he is not longer on the grid every Sunday, on Sundays he drives jet-skis in Miami, so he doesn’t make big headlines nowadays.

If we add that Villeneuve’s lucrative contract with BAR will end at the end of the season, as well as Takuma Sato, BAR’s reserve driver, more than implying that he will race in 2004, we have a perfect explanation of why Villeneuve is such a hot topic lately.

Villeneuve speaks French fluently, and therefore some insiders think that it could make lots of sense for the Anglo French team to hire him. Some point to the PR possibilities of the Canadian. Maybe they forget how much Villeneuve hates PR activities. I do not understand very well why Villeneuve would go to the Renault F1 engine factory in France, if he has never been in the Honda factory in Japan. Can you imagine Villeneuve bashing in French Renault F1 engine that is said to lack 100 bhp against the front-runners? Wouldn't that be great PR?

As Alonso is turning a great start of the season, the rumour picked on Trulli, that due to an overconfident Michael Schumacher in Malaysia and to a touch with Michael’s brother in Brazil has not been able to keep with the young Spaniard. Nevertheless Trulli has scored in 3 out of 4 races and was second on the pole at Sepang with a car fuelled with 10 more kilos of gasoline than Alonso’s. Not a bad effort by the Italian.

Once the rumour is out, we have JV’s fans – that’s for Jacques fans, do not mistake with Jos Verstappen’s fans, that are even more noisy – clogging the forums cheering for such a change and trying for it to happen even before the end of the season.

If we look at the 2003 season, we see that Jacques Villeneuve has made the news more for his comments and mistakes than for his driving abilities. At first he tried to out-psyche his younger teammate Jenson Button, who was rejected at Renault, in order to make room for young Alonso. He then made a mistake at Australia and entered the pits on the same lap Button was called in, causing his teammate to have to wait in line in order to pump gas and change tires. Just like any of us in a road garage. This move by the Canadian cost Button a point scoring position and ruined Button’s race.

Finally, he was also outspoken at the recent Brazilian GP. Up to 8 drivers crashed in that race, including his teammate Button. Six drivers went off in the same turn. His comments after the race in which he scored 3 points where juicy:

"It was a very difficult race, and the track was tough to drive, but if you took care of yourself then it wasn't too bad," he said, "There wasn't that much water really, but it's down to the drivers to be less crazy in those conditions - and there was some crazy driving out there.

"Some drivers were overtaking under the yellow flags - halfway through the race, I saw Fernando Alonso overtake like that - and I think it's that kind of driving that leads to big accidents. We saw the same thing in the pit-stops, with drivers chopping across the field on the exit, then having to lift halfway down the straight to stop them going off onto the grass. It's that sort of thing that creates the danger, not just the conditions."

As Fernando Alonso’s crash had ended the race and the Spaniard was being rushed to a hospital at the moment the Canadian was bashing him it really was big news. A word of concern about Alonso’s state by the outspoken Jacques? I did not heard it.

Alonso was granted 3rd place in that strange race that was fist won by Raikkonen and 5 days later by Fisichella, but never made it to the podium as his crash at 260 km/h and up to 60g was too much for him. After 12 hours in the hospital he was released and he was given his trophy, flying back to Spain with some cuts and bruises.

Alonso was one week later asked by a Spanish journalist about his opinion on Villeneuve’s comments that he has driven dangerously. This is what he answered:

“Yeah, right. Well, it does not affect me. If it would have been Fisichella, Trulli or Schumacher..., I would be worried. Since it comes from him it does not matter to me.”

After the Imola GP, in which Alonso finished 6th and Villeneuve was a victim of the Honda engine, Alonso responded to fans on the site of the Spanish sport newspaper “As”. One shwred fan asked him a key question: Have you talked to Villeneuve after he said you drive like a maniac? Alonso calmly responded:
“Yeah, on Sunday, before the race at Imola. He asked me if I was going to start a little more calm for this race, I answered no, that I was really looking forward to the race. As he was in front of me at the start…”

Isn’t this the start of a beautiful friendship?

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