No, Jacques Villeneuve was not named Renault’s new driver on Sunday, much to the despair of a legion of fans. The former world champion now has little to no chance of making a comeback in Formula One.
A lot of people had their hopes high after I published a report on Saturday, claiming that Robert Kubica told Sébastien Buemi that Villeneuve would become his teammate.
Someone previously pointed me to an original news story in a Polish magazine. However, it was impossible for me to contact Villeneuve either by phone, e-mail or SMS. The guy has been unreachable for nearly a week.
So, without double-checking the veracity of the information from Poland, I made some tweaks and still put the story on line at Auto123.com.
Obviously, this sent the media into a frenzy and fans of Villeneuve were once again filled with hope. Meanwhile, his critics said I was nothing more than a "pseudo-journalist." However, if Villeneuve had indeed surfaced next to Kubica on Sunday during the unveiling of the new Renault R30, they would have called me the Oracle with a capital ‘O’!
Renault executives instead chose a fairly unknown rookie from GP2, Russia’s Vitaly Petrov. This new driver comes in with 15 million euros in sponsorship money! That’s fantastic — and quite necessary — because the bodies of the new Renaults are currently sponsor-free.
Looks like Jacques Villeneuve is out of the picture. Should we be any surprised? I guess not. While he’s still sharp behind the wheel, Jacques hasn’t raced at the highest levels for a really long time. True, he participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Peugeot and won the 1000km Spa in 2008, but the team wouldn’t keep him on board for the upcoming months, let alone seasons. "Not fast enough," is what they told me.
I like Villeneuve. I’ve known him since 1986 and I respect him. But even with gargantuan efforts, I don’t think he’ll ever be able to make a return to Formula One… unless he gets some help from Mr. Ecclestone’s secret bag of tricks!
A lot of people had their hopes high after I published a report on Saturday, claiming that Robert Kubica told Sébastien Buemi that Villeneuve would become his teammate.
Someone previously pointed me to an original news story in a Polish magazine. However, it was impossible for me to contact Villeneuve either by phone, e-mail or SMS. The guy has been unreachable for nearly a week.
So, without double-checking the veracity of the information from Poland, I made some tweaks and still put the story on line at Auto123.com.
Obviously, this sent the media into a frenzy and fans of Villeneuve were once again filled with hope. Meanwhile, his critics said I was nothing more than a "pseudo-journalist." However, if Villeneuve had indeed surfaced next to Kubica on Sunday during the unveiling of the new Renault R30, they would have called me the Oracle with a capital ‘O’!
Renault executives instead chose a fairly unknown rookie from GP2, Russia’s Vitaly Petrov. This new driver comes in with 15 million euros in sponsorship money! That’s fantastic — and quite necessary — because the bodies of the new Renaults are currently sponsor-free.
Looks like Jacques Villeneuve is out of the picture. Should we be any surprised? I guess not. While he’s still sharp behind the wheel, Jacques hasn’t raced at the highest levels for a really long time. True, he participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Peugeot and won the 1000km Spa in 2008, but the team wouldn’t keep him on board for the upcoming months, let alone seasons. "Not fast enough," is what they told me.
I like Villeneuve. I’ve known him since 1986 and I respect him. But even with gargantuan efforts, I don’t think he’ll ever be able to make a return to Formula One… unless he gets some help from Mr. Ecclestone’s secret bag of tricks!