By Phil Huff
December 12 2002

In recent times British American Racing driver Jacques Villeneuve appears to have been getting more media coverage for his quotes than for his results. Now with Eddie Irvine seemingly headed for retirement it looks as though the Ulsterman's role as F1's primary 'rent-a quote' will pass on to BAR's Canadian star, christened 'Cheque Villeneuve' over at The Scuderia.

At the weekend, during a quick visit to Scotland, Villeneuve took the opportunity to rubbish Jaguar's new driver pairing, Minardi points scorer Mark Webber and Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia, at the time we refused to give his comments credence.

"Let's be honest, even Colin McRae couldn't do much worse than the drivers currently at Jaguar," said Villeneuve.

According to Reuters, Webber refuses to get drawn into a slanging match and merely commented: "I don't know why he's having a pop at the young guys. Perhaps he's just been a bit short of publicity lately. We intend to prove
him wrong next year and I'm sure we will."


With Jenson Button, seemingly the apple of David Richards' eye, in the second BAR, it's clear that JV will have to work hard to capture the media's attention, so perhaps he's getting in some practice.

Speaking to Motorsport News, Villeneuve also takes a swipe at some of the new guys coming into F1 claiming that they're nothing more than 'corporate robots'. "The sport is short of characters," he laments. "These young, inexperienced drivers are so happy to be a part of it that they never say what they think.

"Losing Jean Alesi hurt the sport," he adds. "If Eddie Irvine doesn't find a drive next season that will hurt the business too. It's a little bit sad."

"F1 has become a corporate sport," he continues. "And corporations don't want human beings driving, they want robots. Nobody sees the difference. They still see the same cars winning and that's what they want. What they don't understand is that they won't have any fans watching the racing if they keep doing that."

"A lot of the other drivers haven't even sweated to get into F1," he adds. "All the other drivers are picked out of Formula Ford because the corporation thinks it can give them the personality it wants."