Jacques Villeneuve planning his retirement from F1?

[KC]

Jacques Villeneuve has expressed a desire to duplicate Graham Hills hat trick by racing and winning LeMans after he retires from Formula 1. This would make him and the late Hill the only racers to ever be Indy 500 champ, World Driving Champ and LeMans winner.

[pink69]

He'll have to get a good drive. Now would be a good time as he could drive one of the Audis but we'll have to see what is racing when he retires as I imagine that the Audis will be gone by then.

[Heeltoe6]

i'd love to see him try. actually he should convince honda to junk the f1 program and go sportscar racing

[marcus]

and thats exactly what sportscar racing needs heeltoe..wouldnt it be great to have Honda in there with some whiz bang techno car ..awesome.

[racer69]

Villeneuve very nearly raced in the Gulf Audi at Le Mans this year.

[Liz]

This is not Jacques-bashing, but only cautionary remarks.

Has anyone told Villeneuve that in order to race in Le Mans cars he'll have to make himself available to the fans (even fans who are Not His Kind) virtually the entire weekend? Jacques has been notorious in F1 for being unfriendly and unapproachable during race weekends and this is one thing that is not tolerated in Le Mans type sports car racing.

Dealing strictly with his driving preferences and techniques, he is also not known as a "team player", which would be a major handicap in sports car racing, finds it difficult to subsume his own personality in the team personality (when was the last time you heard anyone say "Tom Kristenson" won an ALMS race and not "Audi"?) and according to those who have worked with him knows nothing meaningful about setting up the car (being what they call a "natural driver").

Assuming he can overcome these obstacles, I'm sure he would be quite good for ticket sales, just the way Mario Andretti was, and I'm sure he would enjoy himself.

[KC]

I think you are right Liz. I don't think JV would like not being the center of the effort instead of it being the team itself. The most important component with LeMans is the car. An unreliable car will never win no matter how fast a driver is.

[Liz]

Mario proved that it's how you drive that matters most in the Panoz ... one of the pit guys told us they had actually considered putting up a pit board for him that said "Mario: GO FASTER."

And the best car in the world won't win anything if one of the drivers won't cooperate with the others and realise that the car has to be set up to make the most of THREE drivers' preferences and abilities, not ONE.

Jacques would not do well in a Le Mans type team. He might, however, be a riot in the BTCC.

[R]

Jacques as a BTCC driver, now that I can't imagine. I think that if it's Jacques' desire to race at and win Le Mans, he will make the necessary adjustments. He will know the score, if he wants to race there and be successful.

As for being "unapproachable" - this is not that uncommon for an F1 driver, is it?

I think virtually any team would want him. Good for sponsors, definitely. Personally, I think it'd be ultra-cool to see Jacques at Le Mans, and if he could join Graham Hill as the only Indy 500, F1 WDC and Le Mans winner, that would be superb.