71 replies to this topic

[SlateGray]

http://www.eurosport...sto939677.shtml

Jacques Villeneuve has left BMW Sauber

[SennasCat]

The move to BAR damaged his career. His knockback to Renault a few years later doomed it. I still think Jax did a creditable job this year, struggling hard to get back to form and did pretty well all things considered. He deserved a bit better than this, surely 6 races wasn't that much to ask??

[Alfisti]

Bit harsh huh? I thought he was awful last year, terrible but this year has been OK and deserved to finish the season.

[Peter Perfect]

Surprised he went so soon, but the general feeling between him and the team didn't seem the best (which seems to be a constant of his F1 career). Can't see him joining anyone else for next year, there doesn't appear enough race-seats in the first place for all the other drivers who were already looking.

Good luck JV in whatever you move on to.

[miniman]

To bad he left under these circumstances, an ex-champion deserves better, however, as it often happens ones skills don't keep pace with one's ambition.

Kubica seems to be an able replacement.

[Gilles4Ever]

being discussed at length here http://forums.autosp...0&goto=lastpost

[kodandaram]

yikes ! I didn't really expect this . And Apologies are in order to the member to whom I said he could quote me about the statement that JV will definitely drive in turkey and beyond . I guess I was among the many others who couldn't believe BMW would be so harsh on him .

Well , I really don't have know what to say . Its very sad that JV is left in the lurch . It must be hard to keep pushing wihout knowing your future - one of the things cited as a reason for this decision . So all in all - its good for both parties. BMW have their desired lineup and Jac drove well this year but didn't get enough rewads . I am sure he is destined to be happier elsewhere in NASCAR or LE MANs where he is respected.

[Stian1979]

haemorrhoids and BMW is only for a-holes annyway.

JV is too good for Dr.T as he now call himself in the petronas comercial.

I hope Kubica disapoints BMW only because I hate those cars. On the other hand I hope JV, Robert and Nick can all do it well in other cars.

[TT6]

Originally posted by SlateGray
http://www.eurosport...sto939677.shtml

Jacques Villeneuve has left BMW Sauber

http://forums.autosp...&threadid=86940

[Gilles4Ever]

new threads about JVi should be started in TNF

[ferrariforlife]

When the fans have to dissect telemetry, lap times and sector times to find his superior pace that is never evident on TV, or in the results, I think it is time to call it quits. Goodbye Jacques!

[Clatter]

I'm not a fan, and I wasnt expecting him to get a BMW drive next year, but I am shocked that he is not at least going to see the season out.

[ferrariforlife]

Originally posted by Clatter
I'm not a fan, and I wasnt expecting him to get a BMW drive next year, but I am shocked that he is not at least going to see the season out.

I think it is just smart of BMW to evaluate Kubica in this situation.

[Clatter]

Originally posted by ferrariforlife
I think it is just smart of BMW to evaluate Kubica in this situation.

Its still unusual to dump a driver mid-season, unless there are exceptional grounds.

[jcbc3]

I think the reason is that BMW thinks that Kubica is a better bet to get points this year already.

[Exit716]

I don't think Villeneuve wanted to be stuck in the same position as he was in 2003 where there were no options for him when Richards hired Sato.
His season started going down hill in Montreal when he ran into the wall.

[JesseFriz]

It's a shame, but Villeneueve wasn't the future of BMW in any way, shape or form. With Kubica waiting in the wings it was only a matter of time. I'm not huge JV fan, but I think they should have respected him enough to give him the last races of 2006.

[Sakae]

Originally posted by JesseFriz
It's a shame, but Villeneueve wasn't the future of BMW in any way, shape or form. With Kubica waiting in the wings it was only a matter of time. I'm not huge JV fan, but I think they should have respected him enough to give him the last races of 2006.

Do they owe him anything? I applaud BMW for calling situation what it is, cutting lossess quickly, and moving on with the experiment. They shoud be commended for the prudent management decision. They have steady hand in NH, and now they need a hot rod like Kimi. Is Kubica it? We see; yesterday is yesterday, and there are 6 more trials for him to show his worth. David C. would be my choice (for development reasons).

__________

I however do not like him for reasons so trival, that it is laughable; moreover something is telling me that he is a nervous wreck which will utimately fall apart. The issue is then, who would drive in 2007 in JV' seat? I am at 51% betting mood that it is not Kubica, and if he at the end gets the seat, it would be only because no one else was available on the last minute.

[Sakae]

What about Sebastian B. in BMW seat (should he wanted)? Wow, problem solved.

[fastlegs]

In summary, Mario made it obvious that he didn't want JV before the season ever started.

The only chance JV had of keeping his ride with BMW was to keep ahead of Nick in the points throughout the entire season.

Since he didn't do this, he played right in to Mario's hand when he crashed and got injured. Of course the rest is now history.

Hopefully, JV will now focus his efforts on competing and winning at Lemans.

[kevthedrummer]

So F1 has lost another of the few characters it had left. I've long thought JV was a driver who found himself in the wrong era. Hopefully he'll find something else and enjoy racing for the sake of sport and not for business.

[Corners]

Don't worry when some of the other drivers get to 35 they'll characters too but hopefully have a nice positive attitude, when the the likes of Liuzzi, Raikkonen, Rosberg, Massa hit 35 I'm sure they will be very interesting characters indeed. Anyway back to the driving.....

[Oversteer1]

Corners:

With the exception of Raikkonen, I believe Rosberg, Massa and Liuzzi won't be in F-1
anywhere near their 35th birthday. They'll be long gone, either driving in DTM, Champcars,
or the LeMans series. Thanks!

Mark

[pio!pio!]

Who will be third driver for the rest of the season???

[HBoss]

Too bad, he was growing to me finally.

[riffola]

I was wrong to think that BMW would not be so heartless. I honestly thought JV would be back next race and finish out the year before retiring. Oh well.

[skonks]

as much as I dislike JV, I think he was treated like s*it at BMW.

He did better than I expected, matching speedwise Nick Heidfeld without any problems. His problem always was he crashed to often.

After his performances until Canada, I expected to end the season at BMW.

But with the race Kubica had at Hungaroring, I understand why BMW decided to drop JV, as Kubica is quick and needs races to polish his skils until next season.

Bye Jacques I'll miss you yes and no.

[clampett]

Originally posted by skonks
But with the race Kubica had at Hungaroring, I understand why BMW decided to drop JV, as Kubica is quick and needs races to polish his skils until next season.

polish?

[xype]

Originally posted by MiPe
Do they owe him anything? I applaud BMW for calling situation what it is, cutting lossess quickly, and moving on with the experiment. They shoud be commended for the prudent management decision.

Dude, it took them 8 months to finally find their balls and sack him, and you call that "cutting their losses quicky"? Cutting their losses quickly would be to pay him out at the beginning of 2006, when they already knew they don't want him or consider him to be part of the team's "future".

[The First MH]

There's a RuSport seat I wouldn't mind seeing JVi in. :

[Corners]

Originally posted by skonks
as much as I dislike JV, I think he was treated like s*it at BMW.

He did better than I expected, matching speedwise Nick Heidfeld without any problems. His problem always was he crashed to often.

After his performances until Canada, I expected to end the season at BMW.

But with the race Kubica had at Hungaroring, I understand why BMW decided to drop JV, as Kubica is quick and needs races to polish his skils until next season.

Bye Jacques I'll miss you yes and no.

You can't say he was treated like ****, I mean that's what people say happenned at B.A.R its got more to do with the team principal being the boss and not being impressed by JV when JV thinks they should be 'because he's been there done that got the T-**** etc etc' Dave Richards didn't buy into it that's all nor did Flavio or Mario.
They just looked purely at his performance and when he'd made comments like the boy band Button comment he was really egging them on to say to him 'c'mon on then shows us what you mean drive faster than him ' . His performace against 23 year old Alonso and now Kubica who looks faster at 21. If you're gonna be vocal and opinionated and put people in their place you've got to back it up, you've got to put your money where your mouth is, and he didn't, he wasn't a complete waste of time at all he just didn't live up to his claim to being better than all these kids.

[se7en_24]

A shame he didn't get to do the whole season, he seemed a lot better this year. But I guess it makes sense for BMW to prime Kubica for next season.

[SirSaltire]

Sorry to see JV leaving mid season. He did well to bounce back from poor form last year.
I realise it will not happen but has an F1 driver ever left the scene twice and come back?

[BWL]

I too am sorry to see Jacques leave F1 - I particularly enjoyed his early years.

I think Dr. Thiessen has made a mistake in pushing Kubica into a full time driving role so soon. Kubica looked good this past Sunday in part by how bad the the Bridgestone wet weather tires performed. Time will tell if he is better than the average F1 driver, but my guess is that he will not emerge as anything special. Now that Dr. Theissen has the drivers of his choice it would not surprise me to see BMW show him the door if he does not make significant progress next year.

[scheivlak]

Originally posted by SirSaltire
Sorry to see JV leaving mid season. He did well to bounce back from poor form last year.
I realise it will not happen but has an F1 driver ever left the scene twice and come back?

The other JV

[Ilaya]

Originally posted by BWL
I think Dr. Thiessen has made a mistake in pushing Kubica into a full time driving role so soon. Kubica looked good this past Sunday in part by how bad the the Bridgestone wet weather tires performed. Time will tell if he is better than the average F1 driver, but my guess is that he will not emerge as anything special. Now that Dr. Theissen has the drivers of his choice it would not surprise me to see BMW show him the door if he does not make significant progress next year.

Well I think Mario Thiessen is quite smart for testing Kubica now, before taking final decisions for 2007.
He knew he didn't want JV in the car for 2007 anyway, so good long term managerial decision there.

On BMW firing Mario Thiessen as early as 2 seasons in F1, ridiculous, he is the big motivator of the BMW F1 program and so far nobody is complaining me thinks.

[thanos]

How much does a Le Mans driver typically make in a year? I wouldn't think it would be anywhere near what a successful NASCAR driver would earn in salary and endorsements.

I think that JV would make a very successful NASCAR driver as he has already demonstrated that he knows how to race on ovals and drivers in NASCAR can be effective even into their 40s.

[SirSaltire]

Originally posted by scheivlak
The other JV

I forgot about good old Johannes Franciscus Verstappen! Anyone else??

[skonks]

Originally posted by Corners
You can't say he was treated like ****, I mean that's what people say happenned at B.A.R its got more to do with the team principal being the boss and not being impressed by JV when JV thinks they should be 'because he's been there done that got the T-**** etc etc' Dave Richards didn't buy into it that's all nor did Flavio or Mario.
They just looked purely at his performance and when he'd made comments like the boy band Button comment he was really egging them on to say to him 'c'mon on then shows us what you mean drive faster than him ' . His performace against 23 year old Alonso and now Kubica who looks faster at 21. If you're gonna be vocal and opinionated and put people in their place you've got to back it up, you've got to put your money where your mouth is, and he didn't, he wasn't a complete waste of time at all he just didn't live up to his claim to being better than all these kids.

That's why I didn't like him.

But, I feel he was never wanted by Mario T. from the beginning. And after some good races (first races) it took much more to praise JV than Nick Heidfeld, even if their performance was on par.

wow, I can't belive I'm defending Jack

[scheivlak]

Originally posted by thanos
How much does a Le Mans driver typically make in a year? I wouldn't think it would be anywhere near what a successful NASCAR driver would earn in salary and endorsements.

Somehow I don't think JV has money problems.

[skonks]

Originally posted by SirSaltire

I forgot about good old Johannes Franciscus Verstappen! Anyone else??

The great British Lion?

[thanos]

Originally posted by scheivlak
Somehow I don't think JV has money problems.

Why would you say that? Even if a guy makes a lot, you can still spend a lot too. Even entertainers that have made hundreds of millions over their career still hold out for expensive paydays.

I don't know how much JV has made over his career but he is still a very young guy and is used to spending money like a rock star.

If JV doesn't care about money just about the racing then I'm sure that some F1 team would have taken him for free.

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by Gilles4Ever

new threads about JVi should be started in TNF

Erm... no thanks (with all due respect).

[SirSaltire]

Originally posted by skonks


The great British Lion?

Was he back twice??

[Ilaya]

Originally posted by thanos
How much does a Le Mans driver typically make in a year?

Well there's not a "typical" amount of money a "Le Mans driver" makes a year.
Drivers at Le Mans from bigger factory backed teams are often employed by large manufacturers like Audi, Corvette, Prodrive or teams hire "big" names like Sebastien Loeb to drive for them.

If Villeneuve wants to drive Le Mans and win, he probably needs a LMP1 team to employ him and with some new names coming in that might be possible.

Otherwise he might be employed by the new Porsche effort at Le Mans, that might be financially more interesting to him, but will almost certainly not guarantee him an overall win at the 24h.
However he could generate a lot of publicity fot Porsche at their first full year of ALMS and possibly LMES.

[Pilla]

Im a JV fan, but cant feel bad about Kubica he drove a good race for his first go, out qualifying Nick and almost getting a point dispite all his mistakes. Its the sort of exciting racing that we should be expecting from Jaques. I will give him a couple more races before I get mad at BMW as he could have Rosberg like bigginers luck and then fall back behind Nick. I feel bad that JV has left but got over it pretty quickly, life goes on. And you never know he could surprise us and be back on the grid again next year.

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by SirSaltire

Was he back twice??

Announced his retirement mid-way 1990, but was 'per$uaded' to continue into 1991 by Williams.

Buggered off at the end of 1992 because Willies wouldn't pay for all his mates' hotel rooms, but went back there in 1994 to share the second car with DC.

[xype]

Originally posted by Twin Window
Announced his retirement mid-way 1990, but was 'per$uaded' to continue into 1991 by Williams.

Buggered off at the end of 1992 because Willies wouldn't pay for all his mates' hotel rooms, but went back there in 1994 to share the second car with DC.

Interesting, thanks for the short lesson.

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by xype

Interesting, thanks for the short lesson.

A pleasure, as always.

Originally posted by Ilaya

Well there's not a "typical" amount of money a "Le Mans driver" makes a year.

Correct; there isn't. (BTW, using quotation marks incorrectly should be penalised by something extremely painful...)

I've no idea about current deals, but circa 1990-2 former F1 drivers - not necessarily ones with *reputations* - would be commanding around $15,000 for Le Mans alone.

[thanos]

I've no idea about current deals, but circa 1990-2 former F1 drivers - not necessarily ones with *reputations* - would be commanding around $15,000 for Le Mans alone

15,000 dollars? Did you mean 1.5 million?