MONTREAL – Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve is enjoying Formula One as a spectator these days, and while he likes how tight the field has become he says it has little to do with parity between drivers.
There have been six different winners in six races this season in a sport that normally has one or two teams that dominate the field. That suggests the gap has tightened between the traditional powers like Red Bull and McLaren Mercedes and the rest of the field.
Maybe not, says Villeneuve.
”It depends what you mean by competitive,” the Montreal resident said Friday between practice sessions at the Canadian Grand Prix. ”Is it because everybody is fast, or is it arbitrary and depends on which day the tire suits which cars?
”In that sense, it’s not competitive. It’s just luck of the draw. But it makes it fun to watch.”
Villeneuve, who is working for Britain’s Sky TV at the race this week, disagreed that there is more depth in driving talent on the grid than in his heyday. He has said many times he feels Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, currently leading in driver standings, is still the most gifted driver in the pack.
”How many Alonsos do you have in the field,” he asked. “One? Exactly, then the field is not that good. Very simple.”
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Villeneuve, who won the 1997 world championship with Williams, still races when he finds a ride, mostly on road courses in NASCAR. He said he’d go back to F1 in a shot if someone offered a job, although he seemed confident that won’t happen.
His chief rival in his glory days, seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, has returned to F1 with the AMG Petronas Mercedes team, although the 42-year-old has picked up only two points from a pair of 10th place finishes this season.
It was not a friendly rivalry. In the final race of his championship season, Villeneuve was nearly run off the track by Schumacher.
”Maybe it’s (payback) for some of the years, but he seems to be having a fair amount of bad luck this year,” said Villeneuve. ”But it doesn’t seem to disturb him.”
Villeneuve, who has shaved his head because he was ”bored” with hair, said he likes driving the heavy NASCAR vehicles and wants to do more of it.
”Getting into NASCAR is as difficult as getting into Formula One, so it’s tough going but I’m not one to give up,” he said. ”It’s very American, which is fine, and there is snobbism between the two.
”It’s very difficult to cross over. It’s not that one is more difficult than the other, it’s just tough to be accepted in one if you come from the other side.”
Unlike F1, NASCAR drivers are not shy about bumping opponents on the track.
”The racing ethics are great,” he said. ”You’re not depending on someone ruling right or wrong.
”You fix it on the track, man to man. Or man to girl. Or man to woman, depending.”
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MOST POLES _ Schumacher won pole position a record six times at the Canadian Grand Prix, the last one in 2001.
Lewis Hamilton is tied for second place with former stars Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet and has a chance to move into second place alone in qualifying on Saturday. The only active drivers who have won one pole each are Sebastian Vettel (2011), Fernando Alonso (2006) and Jenson Button (2005).
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OFF THE BUTTON _ McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale was asked about criticism from BBC analyst Gary Anderson that the team took too long to fix an oil leak in Jenson Button’s gearbox. The problem arose early in the morning practice session and cropped up again when it was replaced for the second. The delay cost valuable practice time.
Neale acknowledged it was one of the ”things we don’t want to happen.
”We’re all pushing very hard which is why the grid is very close. From time to time there will be a technical problem. It certainly wasn’t trivial, and having been back over it this afternoon I don’t think we missed anything in our first diagnosis that would have led us to believe that we were going to have the problem that we did after lunch. He’s entitled to his view.”
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