128 replies to this topic

[silver]

This was taken from www.turunsanomat.fi and translation is mine so grammar might not be 100% correct.


Jacques Villeneuve is the Don Quijote-man of Formula One who seems to fight even against wind mills.

This times 31-year old Canadian irritates his competitors by evaluating bad boys of F1 championship aka drivers with dirtiest driving styles.

-Michael Schumacher, by far, is the worst of all. He even squeezes his own brother to the wall if needed.

-Sauber-rookie Felipe Massa was among the worst during last season. He was probably to most dangerous driver on track to the other drivers.

-Juan-Pablo Montoya also belongs to the drivers who play with dirty cards. Giancarlo Fisichella on the other hand is already famous for his stupid moves.

-Normally nasty tricks are done by drivers who have nothing to do on F1 level. They still think that they are in go-karting races playing with their friends and thats why they end up doing stupid things.

-For example Eddie Irvine was a good racing driver but he too was quite dangerous lad while driving for Ferrari. Only after he left from there he started respecting others.

-Especially I had a lot of respect for Mika Hakkinen who was always honest and straightforward racing driver. Kimi Raikkonen is also fast driver who hasnt at least so far done anything condemnable Villeneuve says.

[baddog]

lol he has a hell of a cheek. at least 1/2 the field would nominate him.

Shaun

[QdfV]

Fine to have these opinions, but using this standard, how would Villeneuve rate Villeneuve?
I remember some moves...

[Henri Greuter]

Well, and that said by a driver who has a Ferrari seat as prime target in 2004.
I respect his open mind and honesty, but if it helps him, or even dos him or his future career much good, I wonder.


Any more reasons needed why whe must not be surprised if Ferrari doesn't take him on board as lon as the team Todt-Byrne-Brown-Schumacher is willing to continue after 2003?

If Pollock can talk Jacques in such a Ferrari team, then he is the undisputed master in politics and must be arranged to organize some more peace talks.


Henri Greuter

[Clone]

I wonder if Ralf's leg still aches.

Not an unfair list though. Just a name or two missing.

[Daniel Lester]

Dumb moves huh, Hockenheim on trulli 97, France on irvine 97 (last lap), canada on ralf(?) in 2000.

The fact that Alesi is scared of Jacques driving says it all.

Villeneuve should check his own closets to make sure there empty before handing out a critique on others.

Prehaps the dumbest move of all was made by a world champ who was still at williams but opted to make money his objective and the stayed 5 (including 03) seasons in a team going nowhere, despite this being obvious by the mid point of the first season. This is even crazier when other (better) offers were turned down.

[kodandaram]

Well JV likes to have a pop at drivers as we know. He won't be making himslef very popular with the other guys. But then again its fun to hear those comments. I mean at least he is brave enough to speak his mind . Unlike some other people .......

[Rediscoveryx]

It's interesting to see how the general attitude towards Häkkinen has changed so much since his early days. He was involved in a lot of incidents in 1994, and was criticized a lot for dangerous driving.

I think Häkkinen is a great example of a driver who matured in his driving ethics, and still was able to keep his speed. He was a class act from 1997 and onwards

[tifosi]

Originally posted by kodandaram
Well JV likes to have a pop at drivers as we know. He won't be making himslef very popular with the other guys. But then again its fun to hear those comments. I mean at least he is brave enough to speak his mind . Unlike some other people .......

Yeah so brave he was to chicken **** to mention the one guy who seems to like t-bonning and slamming into other cars more than anything, that guy from BAR Villenueve.

[skinnylizard]

honest question...how much can we trust this report?
secondly maybe he is just trying to wind a few people up...
otherwise as much as i support JV this is stupid considering he has pulled a few dumass moves...
as for Alesi saying he is scared of Jacques..i dont remember that being in the vein u intend...
xxx
www.pi-media.com
www.eranstudio.com

[Nikolas Garth]

Originally posted by tifosi


Yeah so brave he was to chicken **** to mention the one guy who seems to like t-bonning and slamming into other cars more than anything, that guy from BAR Villenueve.

You must remember he was differentiating between deliberate actions and those borne out of sheer incompetence.

[tifosi]

Originally posted by Nikolas Garth
You must remember he was differentiating between deliberate actions and those borne out of sheer incompetence.

Awwww, sorry thanks

[silver]

Originally posted by skinnylizard
honest question...how much can we trust this report?
secondly maybe he is just trying to wind a few people up...
otherwise as much as i support JV this is stupid considering he has pulled a few dumass moves...
as for Alesi saying he is scared of Jacques..i dont remember that being in the vein u intend...
xxx
www.pi-media.com
www.eranstudio.com

So far reports from Turunsanomat have been truthful. Turunsanomat is not a tabloid magazine. It is one of the biggest newspapers in Finland and Turunsanomat F1-reporter Heikki Kulta is the best F1 reporter of Finland.

[Williams]

I can think of some instances where Jacques has shown himself to be a hard racer (passing outside of Michael in Portugal (96,97 ?), trying to overtake Irvine in France one year and overshooting) but I don't think I would call him a "dirty driver". Michael stretches that point a bit more and I don't think the two are in the same league when it come to deliberate "over-intimidation", shall we call it, of other drivers.

Something may have been lost in the translation (thanks for that, btw silver ) but there is also a difference between dumb, overenthusiastic, and dirty moves, and the either Villeneuve or the reporter was probably a bit overenthusiac when trying to lump all these drivers into the same category.

Interesting that he talks about Montoya playing dirty, I think it is more a case of hard racing, and perhaps a sign of the antipathy between the two drivers. It'd be interesting to see the two mix it up head-to-head on the track.;)

[tifosi]

Oh cmon Williams, its easy to classify the drivers. If it's a driver you like or on a team you support it is good hard racing. If it is a driver you dislike or a team you dont support (and especially if he hits the driver you like), then it is a stuipid deliberate attempt.


Silver,

I don't doubt Turunsanomat is a good paper, but a little interesting that this is from a Finnish paper and the two drivers that are praised are...................................................................................................FINNISH!!!

[silver]

Originally posted by tifosi

Silver,

I don't doubt Turunsanomat is a good paper, but a little interesting that this is from a Finnish paper and the two drivers that are praised are...................................................................................................FINNISH!!!

Yes I was (still am) very sceptical about that but i think in a way Villeneuve's comment about Hakkinen is true, redardless of ones favourite driver.

But i get your point about your countrymen being praised. That is the reason i was always watching F1 from Eurosport (not from Finnish tv) since i wanted to know what international press was really thinking of Hakkinen. I am not talking about year 1994-1997 and so on....

[K-One]

Originally posted by tifosi


Silver,

I don't doubt Turunsanomat is a good paper, but a little interesting that this is from a Finnish paper and the two drivers that are praised are...................................................................................................FINNISH!!!

I think we can all agree on JV's opinion about MH. JV said that KR hasn't done anything stupid, yet...So he wasn't sure about KR, time will tell.

[Chris G.]

I wish JV would get a decent ride so we could watch him do what he does best. This talking thing just isn't his bag.

[Cinquecento]

Anything Turun Sanomat or the reporter Heikki Kulta has to say on Finnish drivers or Ferrari have to be taken with a half a pound of salt and laxatives. I subscribe to the rag and have read his reports for years, he's simply biased and I wouldn't stop far from accusing him of making stuff up on occasions.

He once translated cylinder head as sylinteripää, for you Finns out there. I've called him that since.

[Nikolas Garth]

Originally posted by Cinquecento
He once translated cylinder head as sylinteripää, for you Finns out there. I've called him that since.

What does "sylinteripää" mean for us non-Finns

[pRy]

If you don't want to be put into a spin, go with the finn.

[tifosi]

Originally posted by Chris G.
I wish JV would get a decent ride so we could watch him do what he does best. This talking thing just isn't his bag.

GIVE JACQUE A FERRARI!!!!, CMON BERNIE WORK IT

[Enkei]

Jacques Villeneuve has branded Michael Schumacher and Ferrari "stupid" for their finish-line antics last year.

The French-Canadian, who is ironically chasing a seat at Ferrari for 2004, has done his hopes of winning a drive no good at all with a strongly-worded attack on the Italian oufit and drivers Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.

Villeneuve said the incidents in Austria and USA – when Barrichello moved over for Schumacher and the German months later repaid the favour – had caused massive damage to Formula 1.

He told Autosport magazine: "The antics in Austria and at Indianapolis this year involving Michael, Rubens and everyone behind the scenes at Ferrari were embarrassing.

"Rubens was stupid to wait until the last 10 metres to gift Michael the win in Austria. Then Michael was really stupid when he pushed Rubens on to the top step of the podium because he was embarrassed and worried about the booing.

"That just turned the sport into a joke. It was an insult to all of us who work really hard.

"You would think someone would have the guts to tell Michael: 'Don't do that kind of stuff anymore'. But he goes to Indianapolis and he thinks he's capable of doing something he thinks is very clever and tries to engineer a dead heat.

"It turned into a real mess. F1 needs America, so Indianapolis was really bad and the whole of Europe was really mad anyway, so single-handedly he hurt F1 a lot."

Villeneuve expects Schumacher to clinch a record sixth world title next season.

He said: "As long as he doesn't break a leg or Ferrari doesn't make a huge botch of the 2003 car, then there's nothing to stop him."

And the 1997 world champ boldly predicted that his own BAR team would make a major step forward and "surprise a few people."

He said: "I'm confident we'll be racing wheel-to-wheel with the McLarens and Williams next year."

Most of what he says makes sense

[Enkei]

From ITV-F1.com btw

[cupra]

BAR racing "wheel to wheel" with the Macs and Williams... hmmm, who else thinks it's just a bit too optimistic. Though I have to say that it would be great to have more teams battling, even if it's for second place. But if BAR were to make such a jump in performance I'd expect the same from Renault

[Williams]

Originally posted by cupra
BAR racing "wheel to wheel" with the Macs and Williams... hmmm, who else thinks it's just a bit too optimistic. Though I have to say that it would be great to have more teams battling, even if it's for second place. But if BAR were to make such a jump in performance I'd expect the same from Renault

Yes, I was going to say: most of what he says makes sense. That was the exception.

[Cinquecento]

Nik,

cylinder head translates as sylinterikansi in technical vocabulary. Sylinteripää would mean, literally, a person with a cylinder in his/her head. He was talking about Kimi in the article, and how he was bound to find new speed for the latter part of 2002 as Mercedes had made him a new 'sylinteripää'.

Of course Kimi is a bit of a cylinder head.


pRy,

that's right. Except that it goes for Ferrari / any other number one enemy of Kimi in the future only. For the mid-pack teams and other no alerts, he may be a trustworthy source. When Hakkinen was in full force, some of the things he wrote about Ferrari would have given the journo a rightful kicking in any foreign forum. Pure yr material.

[HP]

Was he teaching on how not to make friends?;)

[maclaren]

1 or 2 years ago JV was having a go against the likes of Ron, David or Kimi ... I wonder how he hasn't a single bad word to say about Ron's squad now is he finally interested in McLaren drive? (not that he was ever offered one)

[HSJ]

Cinquecento, I wonder whose fan are you? Ferrari or MS, maybe? Someone else?

Heikki Kulta is biased, but among the least so in the F1 press, and I mean globally. His writing is no worse than what you get in F1 Racing, and even in Autosport at times, to mention a couple of examples. When Kulta gives an opinion it certainly should be taken with a pinch of salt, but on factual info and rumors (like who is going where) he's among the most reliable in the business, and again I mean that globally. He has often written about things months in advance that the international media had no clue about, and been correct about it to boot. He seems to have some inside info that the other journos don't. Of course he does miss some of the info that the others write about successfully, but he's definitely among the best and most reliable journos out there. Just let him have his opinions, read those for fun if you like, but there's not much if anything wrong with his factual reporting, something that cannot be said of so many other reporters who use quotes in a rather misleading way so often, and even more so their headlines are sometimes bordering on lying.

[Robbie]

Originally posted by Rediscoveryx
It's interesting to see how the general attitude towards Häkkinen has changed so much since his early days. He was involved in a lot of incidents in 1994, and was criticized a lot for dangerous driving.

I think Häkkinen is a great example of a driver who matured in his driving ethics, and still was able to keep his speed. He was a class act from 1997 and onwards

Easy to be clean when you're driving the outstanding vehicle, unless you're MS, of course...

[maclaren]

Originally posted by HSJ
Cinquecento, I wonder whose fan are you? Ferrari or MS, maybe? Someone else?

Heikki Kulta is biased, but among the least so in the F1 press, and I mean globally. His writing is no worse than what you get in F1 Racing, and even in Autosport at times, to mention a couple of examples. When Kulta gives an opinion it certainly should be taken with a pinch of salt, but on factual info and rumors (like who is going where) he's among the most reliable in the business, and again I mean that globally. He has often written about things months in advance that the international media had no clue about, and been correct about it to boot. He seems to have some inside info that the other journos don't. Of course he does miss some of the info that the others write about successfully, but he's definitely among the best and most reliable journos out there. Just let him have his opinions, read those for fun if you like, but there's not much if anything wrong with his factual reporting, something that cannot be said of so many other reporters who use quotes in a rather misleading way so often, and even more so their headlines are sometimes bordering on lying.

Agreed, of course he is pro-Finland because writing in finnish newspapers. But his info is reliable most of the time, and it is not copied from cheap sites

He was also first to announce da Matta to Toyota.

[Manson]

As much as I like Jacques, these opinions smack of redundancy. Maybe it's a ploy to show that having him not do appearances is a good thing!

[BARnone]

Originally posted by Manson
As much as I like Jacques, these opinions smack of redundancy. Maybe it's a ploy to show that having him not do appearances is a good thing!

Or could it be the journo's keep asking him the same questions over and over? His statements re Schumacher and Ferrari are almost verbatim what he said at the time.

BARnone.

[BuonoBruttoCattivo]

I was watching the 'Year in Racing, F1 Review 2002', and David Hobbs went out on a limb suggesting that BAR-Honda will be the surprise team next year.
Honda exclusivity.
New Designer.
Button.
And the Prodrive guy (forgot his name) is very competent.

[BARnone]

Originally posted by BuonoBruttoCattivo
I was watching the 'Year in Racing, F1 Review 2002', and David Hobbs went out on a limb suggesting that BAR-Honda will be the surprise team next year.
Honda exclusivity.
New Designer.
Button.
And the Prodrive guy (forgot his name) is very competent.

I heard that too - and noted he didn't mention Villeneuve. I am not sure why he would think that Button or Willis could be a factor in BAR's 2003 success. To me neither one is proven yet. For sure Honda and Richards have proven track records.

BARnone.

[Alonsoid]

talk about the pot calling the kettle.......

JV has made so many stupid moves in the past in the guise of hard racing. I personally think all of them can be dirty depending on the situation - MS, JV, JPM...all the same kind of thugs on track

[BARnone]

Originally posted by Alonsoid
talk about the pot calling the kettle.......

JV has made so many stupid moves in the past in the guise of hard racing. I personally think all of them can be dirty depending on the situation - MS, JV, JPM...all the same kind of thugs on track

There is a difference as someone pointed out earlier in the thread. Villeneuve has made his share of stupid moves on the track (Montreal 1997 and 2000 come to mind immediately), but none of them have been seen as malicious or contemptuous of the fans.

BARnone.

[StickShift]

Villeneuve's mess ups on track seem to be because he has a severe case of brain-fade. Last time I checked, this was A LOT MORE DIFFERENT then then turning your car into another person's car. The difference is Black and White.

Schumacher fans. Whatcha goin to do?

[Teez]

Originally posted by StickShift

Villeneuve's mess ups on track seem to be because he has a severe case of brain-fade. Last time I checked, this was A LOT MORE DIFFERENT then then turning your car into another person's car.

Even if Schumacher turned his car into another because of "a severe case of brain-fade"? Oops!

The difference is Black and White.

To a Villeneuve fan.

Schumacher fans. Whatcha goin to do?

How about thinking up a better argument?

[StickShift]

VILLENEUVE'S ACTIONS WERE ACCIDENTAL, SCHUMACHER'S ACTIONS WERE PREMEDITATED.

[917k]

Originally posted by BARnone


There is a difference as someone pointed out earlier in the thread. Villeneuve has made his share of stupid moves on the track (Montreal 1997 and 2000 come to mind immediately), but none of them have been seen as malicious or contemptuous of the fans.

BARnone.

I would call his actions at Suzuka 1997,to be dirty.He emerged from the pitlane and immediately swerved across the track,into the racing line occupied by MS.Could have been horrendous,IMO.
This isn't a bash of JV,per say,but just a reminder he can give as good[bad?]as he gets.

[BuonoBruttoCattivo]

Originally posted by BARnone


I heard that too - and noted he didn't mention Villeneuve. I am not sure why he would think that Button or Willis could be a factor in BAR's 2003 success. To me neither one is proven yet. For sure Honda and Richards have proven track records.

BARnone.

Right, now that I think about it he didn't.
But I assume that he was focusing purely on the 'newer' elements of BAR.
BAR/Honda can and should be able to fight with Renault next year, and nothing would give me more pleasure than to see them upset McLaren, however, they did mention [P.Winsdor et all] in the program that McLaren will be the next team to take the fight to MS/Ferrari, with which I massively agree (be-spoke tyres, MP-4/18 etc).
Infact, in the latest F1 Racing mag., Ross Brawn himself says that their "rivals '03 will be McL and Newey knows what he's doing and McLaren working methods are better than Williams".

[BARnone]

917K - you are right about Suzuka 1997 - I had forgotten it. The whole race was marred by such antics from BOTH teams. Irvine and Frentzen were employed as mobile chicanes if I remember correctly.

BARnone.

[StickShift]

Originally posted by 917k


I would call his actions at Suzuka 1997,to be dirty.He emerged from the pitlane and immediately swerved across the track,into the racing line occupied by MS.Could have been horrendous,IMO.
This isn't a bash of JV,per say,but just a reminder he can give as good[bad?]as he gets.

That sounds like what MS did to Frentzen at Montreal...

[BARnone]

Originally posted by BuonoBruttoCattivo
Infact, in the latest F1 Racing mag., Ross Brawn himself says that their "rivals '03 will be McL and Newey knows what he's doing and McLaren working methods are better than Williams".

This is what causes me to doubt some claims that BAR will be that competitive next year. Sure the car will be better - but is Willis that good given the cars he produced at Williams?

BARnone.

[QdfV]

Well premeditated or not, no one has died so far as a result of Schumachers actions.

[Martijn]

I rather have MS turn into me in a slow corner, where he is in ful control of his mind and car, then that Jacx "Canada style" brainfade where he forgets to brake for a hairpin and rams Ralf. Jacx isnt in control of his mind and car.

Spot the difference?

Not being in control of your car is the worst sin you can do as a racing driver. It puts yourself, other drivers and the crowd in danger. Jacx should realise that he's a danger to everyone, with these recurring brain-fades.

[vapaokie]

Originally posted by QdfV
Well premeditated or not, no one has died so far as a result of Schumachers actions.

I'm not necessarily a JV fan, but that is an uncalled for cheap shot. The marshall's death was a combination of unfortunate circumstances, including his own for standing "down track" from the fence opening. To blame his death on JV, instead of accepting it as an unfortunate accident to be learned from (which the series has in improving fence safety), is petty bias at best.

[917k]

Originally posted by StickShift


That sounds like what MS did to Frentzen at Montreal...

Sure,whatever,i'm not taking sides.