Villeneuve hates being uncompetitive

Jacques Villeneuve has been under some speculation recently as to whether he will stay with BAR and team principal David Richards has said that developing the car is more important than hiring top drivers. Villeneuve is known to be unhappy with the BAR004 this season, with a best result of 7th at the San Marino Grand Prix last weekend, and has been restless since the departure of friend and manger Craig Pollock as boss of BAR last December.

"I hate being uncompetitive," Villeneuve said. "Nobody likes it. It's frustrating and very tiring. You have to push people to work harder, to make sure it gets better in the long term, but the long term is getting shorter and shorter. I'll see what happens in the next couple of months but I won't stick with it forever. There comes a point when enough is enough. There was a risk coming to BAR, it didn't pay off and that's fine. I've learned a lot and I'm a better driver than I was."

"It wasn't Craig's fault that the car wasn't fast. Someone had to have their head chopped and he was team principal so it's normal that he got chopped. The decision that is more difficult to accept is to have stayed with the team when I re- signed the contract, because there had been two years of no result and there was obviously no reason for the team to get better."

After Pollock stepped down as BAR boss there was much speculation that Villeneuve would follow suit and leave the team -- but so far the Canadian has stuck to his contract despite continuing worries about the car. BAR have been well off the pace so far this year and rumours continue that Villeneuve is ready to depart, although where he might go is also very much under debate.