Malaysian Tony Fernandes, the owner and boss of the new Lotus F1 Racing Formula 1 team has unveiled on Monday the name of his two drivers. As expected, former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve is not one of them.
Last week Fernandes created turmoil in the Canadian medias when he declared that Villeneuve's name was not on his short list of potential drivers for 2010.
Monday, Fernandes announced that the Lotus team would run veteran Jarno Trulli and team McLaren refugee Heikko Kovalainen.
Despite the operation of seduction organised by Villeneuve in favour of Lotus a few weeks ago (which included a visit of the production car factory, a photo of himself aboard a vintage Lotus and a few good words from his friend Gino Rosato), Fernandes elected to hire two veteran F1 drivers.
Villeneuve's only chance to make a return in F1 remains with Renault, or with the buyers of its F1 team.
Villeneuve has a really slim chance to return in F1 if Gerard Lopez's Genii Capital takes control of the Renault F1 Team. Villeneuve has contacts with Gravity Sports Management, a property of Genii. But his chances are very thin.
Some insiders say that Villeneuve's life-after-F1 hurt him most.
"Jacques Villeneuve -- a person I respect immensely -- did not enjoy a successful motorsport career after his stint in Formula 1," said a former manager of the Renault F1 Team to Auto123.com.
"Jacques was ejected from F1 abruptly and stopped racing for a while," he said.
"Then, he tried his hands on a few race cars, without much success, lets be honest. Jacques did not make impression at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, did no fireworks in the spec Speedcar series, did not land a seat in NASCAR and scored average results in the various sedan series he competed in. As a former Indy 500 winner and former World Champion he should have dominated his rivals, which he did not manage to do. That I think is hurting him the most now as he's trying to make his way back into F1."
photo:Speedcar & Lotus
Last week Fernandes created turmoil in the Canadian medias when he declared that Villeneuve's name was not on his short list of potential drivers for 2010.
Monday, Fernandes announced that the Lotus team would run veteran Jarno Trulli and team McLaren refugee Heikko Kovalainen.
Despite the operation of seduction organised by Villeneuve in favour of Lotus a few weeks ago (which included a visit of the production car factory, a photo of himself aboard a vintage Lotus and a few good words from his friend Gino Rosato), Fernandes elected to hire two veteran F1 drivers.
Villeneuve's only chance to make a return in F1 remains with Renault, or with the buyers of its F1 team.
Villeneuve has a really slim chance to return in F1 if Gerard Lopez's Genii Capital takes control of the Renault F1 Team. Villeneuve has contacts with Gravity Sports Management, a property of Genii. But his chances are very thin.
Some insiders say that Villeneuve's life-after-F1 hurt him most.
"Jacques Villeneuve -- a person I respect immensely -- did not enjoy a successful motorsport career after his stint in Formula 1," said a former manager of the Renault F1 Team to Auto123.com.
"Jacques was ejected from F1 abruptly and stopped racing for a while," he said.
"Then, he tried his hands on a few race cars, without much success, lets be honest. Jacques did not make impression at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, did no fireworks in the spec Speedcar series, did not land a seat in NASCAR and scored average results in the various sedan series he competed in. As a former Indy 500 winner and former World Champion he should have dominated his rivals, which he did not manage to do. That I think is hurting him the most now as he's trying to make his way back into F1."
photo:Speedcar & Lotus