Did Bernie make “The Call”?

Martin Brundle, who manages David Coulthard, said he was surprised when Peter Sauber elected to hire Jacques Villeneuve, especially since he was told the team was looking at developing younger talent. "The whole thing with Sauber confused me," explained Brundle. "I was talking to Peter on behalf of David and he said, 'No, I'm going to go for a young driver, I'm going to go for youth.' And then he signed Jacques…" "Jacques has been a great driver in Champ Cars and is a great driver in Formula 1; you don't win a lot of grands prix and a world championship if you're not a great driver end of story. Now I think he's fallen off the ledge and I don't think he's got any safety ropes to climb back on."

So why did Sauber go with Villeneuve, who has performed poorly at the last two teams he drove for – BAR and Renault? Speculation is that Bernie Ecclestone requested it, and when Bernie speaks, people listen. His friend Normand Legault, who promotes the Canadian GP, needed a Canadian driver on the grid to help sell tickets and pay Bernie's over inflated F1 sanctioning fee prices. And so it was done……