By Phil Huff
December 15 2002

Jacques Villeneuve cringes at the notion of the British American Racing car he helped inaugurate becoming competitive just in time for him to leave the Formula One team. That's exactly what may happen as the outspoken driver from Iberville, Quebec, enters the final year of his contract with British American Racing.

Early indications are that, after four years of frustration, the car will be quicker in 2003, but the BAR team is not expected to extend Villeneuve's contract, reportedly worth $15-million (£9.5 million) a year, beyond next season.

"It might not be my decision to stay or not," Villeneuve said Saturday at his annual charity ski marathon at this Laurentian Mountain resort. "I might not be wanted there anymore.

"It looked last year that I was being pushed out and they ended up being obliged to keep me. That's good, because finally I have a good car and we could do something good. "But it would be annoying if we suddenly became competitive and started winning races and it was decided I wasn't needed," he added.

Villeneuve won the Formula One championship in 1997 with Williams, but jumped two years later to BAR, a team founded by a group that included his friend and agent Craig Pollock.

Pollock, who remains a part owner and a director of BAR but no longer manages the team, said this week he expects Villeneuve to move to one of the top teams in 2004, perhaps even runaway F1 leader Ferrari.

Villeneuve, whose father Gilles drove a Ferrari until he died in a spectacular crash at the 1982, was typically unsentimental about the idea of driving for the famous Italian sportscar-maker.

"If Ferrari stays on top, yes, but if it does like McLaren and goes backward, it would be less interesting," Villeneuve said, adding Ferrari was only intriguing "because it has been the best team lately."

He expects Ferrari to win again in 2003, but rival teams, including BAR, may not be so far behind. A new BAR, called the 005, is to begin testing in January in Barcelona.

"Our expectations are high and they seem to be realistic," said Villeneuve. "In the past, when we've had expectations, it was like we were hoping for Christmas and it never happened.

"This year, there's a whole new group of technical people working on it and the numbers look amazing, so we should make a big leap forward. The engine should not only be more powerful, but it should be a lot lighter, which will allow us to go faster."

Since it sputtered onto the F1 circuit with a massive budget but an inferior car in 1999, the BAR experiment has been a disaster for Villeneuve, whose past glories include a CART championship and Indianapolis 500 victory in 1995.

Last season, he was 12th in F1 standings, with a meagre four championship points from a fourth-place finish at Silverstone in England and a sixth place at the US Grand Prix.

He also got into a mud-slinging match with Pollock's replacement as team boss, David Richards, who suggested that Villeneuve's contract was a drag on the team and they would be better off with a younger driver.

Richard's got part of what he wanted when 22-year-old Briton Jensen Button was hired to replaced Frenchman Olivier Panis as the second driver for this season, but Villeneuve wouldn't let them out of his contract.

Some time in the new year, Pollock will likely start sounding out rival teams about taking on his client, although he said he'd put aside his directorship at the holding company that owns BAR beforehand to avoid conflict of interest.

Villeneuve knows his bargaining power will be weakened if he has another disappointing season.

"Another bad season and I'll be staying home next year," he said with a grin. "If you win, you're worth more. If you don't win, you're worth less." Earlier in the week, Pollock even floated the notion of having Villeneuve drive for Ferrari as a hostile team-mate to world champion Michael Schumacher, letting what many consider the world's top two drivers compete on equal footing.

However, Villeneuve said Ferrari showed this year it won't have competition between it's two drivers "as long as Michael is there."

Source: The Canadian Press