At 32-years of age, Jacques Villeneuve (JV) is far from
being washed-up. He has gone on record as saying he won't buy a ride in F1,
hence his F1 career is over because there simply are no rides left that give him
any chance of winning, nor of getting paid a salary.
He has made statements about NASCAR, and while there is
certainly money to be made in NASCAR, I just don't see JV driving anything but an
open wheel car. And besides, after being in F1 all those years, it's hard to
imagine him fitting in the NASCAR paddock, or putting up with NASCAR's grinding
36-race schedule. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.
He rules out the IRL series as too dangerous. "The IRL is
not for me," he says. "Because the only way I can do a job like this is by pushing
to the limit and taking risks, and you can't do that in the IRL. Look at how many
people get hurt. I know that I will get hurt, so there's no point.
He has mentioned a go at LeMans, and while that's still
possible, that's only one race per year.
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A much younger Jacques
Villeneuve as a CART driver in 1995. He won the championship then left
for F1
Photo courtesy of Ford |
That leaves two serious options from where I sit,
1) He will sit at home and relax, plant some flowers
and vegetables, spread some fertilizer, water them once a day and watch the crops
grow, or
2) He will be pleasantly surprised when Open Wheel
Racing Series LLC (OWRS) reveals their plans for CART, decide that's better than
gardening, and ultimately decide to return to the series that launched his career.
You should note that CART is NOT racing the weekend of
LeMans in 2004, hence JV can still do that if he so chooses.
I believe OWRS will be keen to sign someone like JV to
bring more credibility to their new series, and it certainly will be a major shot
in the arm for CART's already successful Canadian venues - Toronto, Vancouver and
Montreal. CART has suffered a loss of many of its big name drivers in the
past two seasons. Paul Gentilozzi, Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe are
smart enough to realize that if they are going to grow their new business they
have to get additional big name drivers into the series, pronto. JV fits
that bill, bringing instant global name recognition.
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Jacques Villeneuve in the
Player's Reynard/Ford at Long Beach in 1995
Photo courtesy of Ford |
Bringing JV in will create an instant rivalry with
fellow Canadian, and defending CART Champion, Paul Tracy, who himself is a bit
controversial. CART certainly could use a few good rivalries. It's
become too mundane as of late.
I think JV is still very bitter about how he was treated in
F1, although some of that was brought upon himself by his sometimes controversial
verbal outbursts and the reputation he made for himself. When he is in a
better frame of mind, and weighs all his options, I feel he will ultimately view
CART as the sensible alternative.
In a CART return, he will be greeted as a hero, especially
in Canada, and he will certainly have a fighting chance to win races once again.
However, in order for OWRS to lure JV back, they
will have to find him a team where he has a real chance of fighting for wins each
week. Here I see two options:
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Jacques Villeneuve in the
Player's Reynard/Ford at Phoenix in 1995
Photo courtesy of Ford |
1) He can drive
for Kevin Kalkhoven and manager and friend, Craig Pollock,
alongside Mika Salo at PK Racing. The team was showing some real improvement
late in the season, and they are ready to challenge for podiums on a regular
basis, but are they ready to win races on a regular basis? Or,
2) He could return to his old team and drive
alongside Paul Tracy for the Player's Forsythe team, though Player's is gone due
to Canadian tobacco laws. It would reunite him with some of his old friends
and would create a dynamite team for Gerald Forsythe. Player's, though gone
from the sidepods, would gain some residual benefit. A deal like that could
see Patrick Carpentier then move over to PK Racing alongside Mika Salo.
Can Forsythe's team afford JV?
Perhaps our speculation that Kool would replace
Player's as sponsor of the Forsythe team is true. Our sources tell us the
head guy for Imperial Tobacco's racing program has been reassigned to Brown &
Williamson in the USA to head up their Kool program. Both Imperial and Brown
& Williamson (B&W) are owned by British American Tobacco who sponsored JV at
BAR under their Lucky Strike brand for many years, so they have a previous
relationship with JV. JV does have some friends at BAT, though in the end
they were not able to save his ride at BAR. Honda wanted Sato.
BAT still owns B&W for now, but.....R.J. Reynolds
Tobacco Holdings Inc. agreed recently to acquire British American Tobacco PLC's
U.S. cigarette business and a second unit for about $3 billion, creating a
stronger No. 2 competitor to market leader Philip Morris. The new entity, to
be called Reynolds American Inc., will boast annual revenues of about $10 billion
and more than 30 percent of the cigarette sales in the United States, the
companies said. The cash and stock deal unites RJR's R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Co., maker of Winston (former NASCAR sponsor), Camel (former F1 sponsor), Salem
and Doral cigarettes, with BAT's Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., the home of
such brands as Kool (former CART sponsor), Pall Mall and Carlton.
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Could we once again see Tracy
in a Kool car? BAT owns Kool and Player's
Photo
by Bill Kistler/AR1 |
