Auto123.com Tuesday talked to Jacques Villeneuve about his performance in this year's Andros Trophy ice racing series.
Former Formula 1 competitors Jacques Villeneuve, Olivier Panis, Paul Belmondo and Franck Lagorce are the drivers of the Skoda effort in the Andros series.
“I drove alongside Olivier (Panis) this past weekend in Andorra, and it has been much better. We kind of like the same car settings,” Villeneuve told us.
He also talked about this year's Skoda Fabia Silhouette, the car he's racing.
“Compared to last year's model, the new Skoda is a completely different car,” Villeneuve said.
“It handles very differently too. It also runs well on a quite narrow range of adjustments. So it's very easy to be completely off the mark. We have very little track time. We only have five qualifying laps, then we're off to short qualifying heats, and since we are two drivers sharing one car, we have very limited track time,” the 1997 F1 World Champion added.
The studded tires used this year also also very different. “The tires are not the same as last year. They have more studs. And this year we are only allowed six tires for the entire weekend instead of eight. Managing tire wear over the course of the two days of competition also plays a major role. Since there almost no snow here in Europe, we often run on the tarmac which destroys the tires,” Villeneuve added.
“We should have done more testing before the start of the season. We travelled to Finland to test the new car but the weather was too nice; there was no snow, no ice,” Villeneuve told us.
Some enthusiastic people started the rumour that Jacques Villeneuve could replace Kurt Busch at Penske Racing in NASCAR in 2012. To this the Canadian simply replied: “I don't think about NASCAR at all. I am fully focused on the Andros Trophy and nothing else”.
Villeneuve will spend the Christmas time in Europe and will come back in Canada in February after the Andros Trophy is over.
Former Formula 1 competitors Jacques Villeneuve, Olivier Panis, Paul Belmondo and Franck Lagorce are the drivers of the Skoda effort in the Andros series.
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| Jacques Villeneuve, Skoda (Photo: Bernard Bakalian) |
“I drove alongside Olivier (Panis) this past weekend in Andorra, and it has been much better. We kind of like the same car settings,” Villeneuve told us.
He also talked about this year's Skoda Fabia Silhouette, the car he's racing.
“Compared to last year's model, the new Skoda is a completely different car,” Villeneuve said.
 |
| Jacques Villeneuve with Paul Belmondo. (Photo: Bernard Bakalian) |
“It handles very differently too. It also runs well on a quite narrow range of adjustments. So it's very easy to be completely off the mark. We have very little track time. We only have five qualifying laps, then we're off to short qualifying heats, and since we are two drivers sharing one car, we have very limited track time,” the 1997 F1 World Champion added.
The studded tires used this year also also very different. “The tires are not the same as last year. They have more studs. And this year we are only allowed six tires for the entire weekend instead of eight. Managing tire wear over the course of the two days of competition also plays a major role. Since there almost no snow here in Europe, we often run on the tarmac which destroys the tires,” Villeneuve added.
 |
| Photo: Bernard Bakalian |
“We should have done more testing before the start of the season. We travelled to Finland to test the new car but the weather was too nice; there was no snow, no ice,” Villeneuve told us.
Some enthusiastic people started the rumour that Jacques Villeneuve could replace Kurt Busch at Penske Racing in NASCAR in 2012. To this the Canadian simply replied: “I don't think about NASCAR at all. I am fully focused on the Andros Trophy and nothing else”.
 |
| Photo: Bernard Bakalian |
Villeneuve will spend the Christmas time in Europe and will come back in Canada in February after the Andros Trophy is over.