FIA hate Zonta haters?

angst · 30 Jul 2000, 16:03 (Ref:26942)

After his penalty in Austria for having the temerity to be involved in a racing incident with MS, did anybody else hear Murray say that Zonta was being 'investigated' by the stewards for his contretemps with Villeneuve. As it turned out it didn't make any difference as he threw it into the wall, but from what I saw he was defending his line from his team mate and had a slight twitch which caused contact between the two of them.Do the FIA have something against him?

Ralf's Girl · 30 Jul 2000, 16:25 (Ref:26956)

Well, it wasn't his first incident of the race.

**bella** · 30 Jul 2000, 16:29 (Ref:26958)

i'm on the arrows mobile phone sms messaging service, and i got a message saying zonta had actually got a 10 second penalty. seems he fell off just in time. poor ricardo. we love you

even if those nasty fia guys don't..

Ralf's Girl · 30 Jul 2000, 16:31 (Ref:26960)

I don't love him. It serves him right that he stuffed it in the wall.

angst · 30 Jul 2000, 16:34 (Ref:26962)

I don't remember the incident. Do I take it the incident that Ralf had in some way involved Zonta...?

Ralf's Girl · 30 Jul 2000, 16:37 (Ref:26966)

I'll put it this way - a guy (remaining nameless - work it out) hit him first.

**bella** · 30 Jul 2000, 16:40 (Ref:26968)

ralf's girl - you read this week's autosport? read the interview with zonta.
and anyway, ralf's no angel is he?

Ed-f1 · 30 Jul 2000, 16:56 (Ref:26972)

In Australia we lost our picture for aboout 2 or 3 minutes around the time of the Villeneuve/Zonta incident. We were told that there were no pictures worldwide because of the storm in Germany. I was just wondering if they were telling the truth or not?

angst · 30 Jul 2000, 17:01 (Ref:26976)

Errrm. No I saw the Zonta /Villeneuve incident. Just a racing incident. Villeneuve on the outside, side by side, slight twitch from Zonta's car, minimal contact, many pirouettes(??) from Villeneuve.

Ed-f1 · 30 Jul 2000, 17:11 (Ref:26980)

That's what I thought. After getting a delayed telecast it looked suspiciously like someone was playing with the fast forward button! Just show the race live channel 9!

jarama · 30 Jul 2000, 17:20 (Ref:26982)

In Barcelona, we lost the picture, too, for three or four endless minutes...

Jay · 30 Jul 2000, 17:49 (Ref:26994)

Ditto in Canada. It must have been a problem in Germany.

They later showed a replay of it. It looked like it was just a racing incident, although if you had to assign blame it would be to Zonta, as he was being a little over ambitious.

Ralf's Girl · 30 Jul 2000, 18:35 (Ref:27003)

Quote:

Originally posted by bella
ralf's girl - you read this week's autosport? read the interview with zonta.
and anyway, ralf's no angel is he?

Why, what's Ralf done?

Liz · 30 Jul 2000, 19:16 (Ref:27012)

It has been said before and by Honda people on site that the BAR personnel (who shall remain Jacques and his boy friend) must stop ganging up on Zonta and destabilizing him because he could be faster than Jacques if they did. The Honda people went so far as to say that they would assign someone to be sure this did not happen. Now that we have that 3 day Cruise of Love behind us (so to speak) and Jacques and Craig are all buddie buddie again, it doesn't surprise me that Pick on Zonta week has come back on the calendar.

Leave the boy alone. Next year when he is at Arrows he will tell the truth about you all.

Gerard · 30 Jul 2000, 21:46 (Ref:27067)

Zonta's fate is sealed. He's definitely not driving for BAR next year.
In an interview with Dutch TV, Jacques Villeneuve said this:

Dutch Reporter: 'What a race!'

Villeneuve: 'Yeah, yeah, uh, and you know, I've got an idiot of a teammate. I never said anything since the beginning of the season, I did not have much respect for him, but, I guess today I can say what I think.'

Ralf's Girl · 30 Jul 2000, 21:48 (Ref:27071)

Yeah, all it takes is Jacques having a quiet word in Craig Pollock's ear about Zonta and he's out the door.

**Bononi** · 30 Jul 2000, 21:56 (Ref:27077)

Sure he can say this... But Zonta has been saying much earlier about the way things were carried in BAR...
I said in an other topic, that in an interview for brazilian TV, he said that he would not stay in a team wich keeps different treatments for the former world champion and a rookie (last year)...
Nothing personal about these two guys... I don;t think Zonta is really what they said before, and I know JV is a champion...

Liz · 30 Jul 2000, 22:24 (Ref:27086)

There is more to the care and feeding of a young racing pilote than what he does on the track. Witness the difference between Frenzy at Williams and Frenzy at Jordan. Zonta has been very badly treated by that team, and Jacques, since he has had his little love-in with the Boss, now thinks the Boss will do just as he says ... or ...

It's a shame when people conspire to ruin other peoples' careers. And judging by what I know of Jacques' early career, he ought to be a bit more sensitive.

On the other hand, maybe he really is a selfish pig. How do I know?

**Bononi** · 30 Jul 2000, 22:33 (Ref:27093)

I would like to see Zonta in some other team, just to know if they said can be true, and to disclose this "mistery" of being faster than JV...
But what I am afraid is that if Zonta is beyond his equipment (BAR) or he doesn't know his limits...

Jay · 30 Jul 2000, 23:16 (Ref:27108)

JV has proven himself a Champion, however he as also proven to be a bad pilot to have as a teammate.

I don't think that BAR have done anything to intentionally phsyc Ricardo out. I think he is just finding himself in the same situation that Heinz Herald Frentzen was in at Williams. Zonta has not been performing in comparison to his teammate, and the more poor finishes (or lack thereof) that he has, the more demoralized he becomes.

While I don't think that Ricardo is as fast as Jacques, I don't we have seen the full potential of Ricardo either.

I don't know if he will sign with Arrows, but if it happens we may see him get the occasional point every now and then. But, I doubt he will ever do much better than that in F1.

EERO · 31 Jul 2000, 01:38 (Ref:27141)

Considering how brilliant he was in F300 and Sportcars ( (WSCC in 98) I cannot wholly dismiss Zonta. Perhaps if he gets another chance next season-we'll see an improved and different driver.

BTW, will he be fined by the Stewards for failing to serve his 10 second penalty because he spun out?

(Yesterday during Qualifying, Fisi was to come in to be weighed, spun in the first turn and was fined $5,000 for failure to report to weigh-in.)

Ed-f1 · 1 Aug 2000, 05:59 (Ref:27430)

In this months F1 racing, in the article where Zonta went white water rafting, it came across that many people in the BAR team prefer Zonta to Villeneuve who never takes the time to talk to anybody. Apart from Craig Pollock I suppose.

Mr.S · 1 Aug 2000, 18:48 (Ref:27610)

Several months ago someone here wrote a letter to Zonta, and he actually wrote back, who ever that was, please post the letter again. That letter actually made me a fan of his.

Roy2 · 1 Aug 2000, 22:42 (Ref:27659)

"How do I know?". That's what I'd like to hear, how do you know? How do you know that JV and CP were ganging up on Zonta to destabilize him, that Honda said they would assign someone to ensure that this wouldn't happen, that there is an extra-curricular relationship between JV & CP ("Jacques and his boy friend", "3 day Cruise of Love behind us, [so to speak]", "his little love-in with the boss").

If you have sources, please share them.

Villenueve does not fraternize with the enemy. The nuturing of Zonta's delicate psyche he does not accept as his responsibility. His history is to ally himself with his engineer (Tony Cicale, Jock Clear), and keep everyone else at arms length. Pollock was/is his manager, friend, and team owner(or whatever his status at BAR is now), so he makes an exception in his case.

Zonta had a very tough problem at BAR, which had nothing to do with conspiracy. He crashed and hurt himself early in 1999. He was a rookie in F1, in a narrow-track, grooved-tired car that was new to his experience, that was unreliable and downright dangerous. He was in a first-year team that had serious teething problems. It's probably true that at times Villenueve's car got more of the team's resources, if only because there wasn't the team resources/organization to go around.

He's qualifying and racing better now. I'd like to see him stay at BAR just to see who'd come out on top. My money would be on Villenueve, without any unfair help from BAR. Liz's reading of him is completely wrong. Judging from her posts, she seems to think that he is a bit of a dilettante who doesn't really know if he wants to race or not, and may retire soon with all his money. If he can prevail by taking unfair advantage, well he's not above that.

Instead, he always knew he was going to race. Next to air, water, and food his overwhelming need is challenge. He is utterly focused, utterly committed. He has no time for Zonta, or any team mate. When Frenzen was fastest in practice at Melbourne in 1997, Villenueve said re qualifying, "I'm going to murder him.", and , virtually, he did, by over 2 seconds. Until he has achieved his goals he
will be extremely tough for any team mate to cope with on equal terms, not excluding Schumacher, never mind Zonta.

Liz · 2 Aug 2000, 00:31 (Ref:27687)

False that Jacques "always wanted to race." Until he was 14, when his uncle persuaded him to take up racing, he wanted to ski in competition. He used to have such terrible headaches at the track when his father raced that he had to be taken home. Here is a quote from his uncle:

"It was not in his mind to race at all. That all came later. He was not even pleading to go racing after the first few times we took him. We would just say "Let's go racing" and he would say "Okay" and we would go....he never came up to me and said "I want to drive cars." That was not what he wanted to do."

Also this: "...to Jacques, it [racing] is just a business. He may win one world championshpi and then go back to Indycars. But it will not be because he loves the sport. It will be because they will pay to have him back in the country. I would be surprised if he was still racing by the time he was 30 years old, because he does not race for the love of it."

And finally, this from the man who managed the Formula Three team on which the young Jacques drove: "What struck me most about him was that he seemed unable to recognize the cars as they zoomed by. Yes, he could say that the red one over there was a Ferrari, because you cannot ignore that, and maybe also because it had been his father's car, but apart from that, he was an absolute zero! Tamburini and I were laughing at him, 'Now you say you want to be a racing driver and you cannot tell one F1 car from the other'?"

As for the source of my comments on Zonta being picked on by the BAR gang, it was in AutoSport. I'll look it up and get back to you.

Sorry I was rude about Craig Pollock but it's my opinion.

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