[LSC9901]

Jacques Villeneuve is getting a lot more than a test with Bill Davis Racing. The car owner said Friday he plans to give the former Formula One star a Nextel Cup ride next season.
Villeneuve will test one of Davis' trucks next week in Chicago, the first step in what is expected to be a full-time NASCAR career. Davis plans to enter the Canadian in the final seven Truck Series races this season, the ARCA event at Talladega Superspeedway and then a full Cup schedule in 2008.
"It is an experiment, if you will," Davis said. "But he's pretty confident he can do it, and we are, too. I think it'll work out just fine."
Villeneuve, who won the F1 world championship in 1997, has been out of work since last summer when he was released from his BMW-Sauber ride. Villeneuve had said for years that the 36-race NASCAR schedule did not interest him.
Davis said Juan Pablo Montoya's switch to NASCAR opened the eyes of car owners, who now are not as hesitant to sign an open wheel driver.
"I think I opened the door for a lot more people, not just Formula One, but people who were afraid to come to NASCAR," Montoya said. "Myself, being competitive, people are like 'Man, this is a good sport to be in.' It's great for NASCAR because it's going to be the series to be in."
Despite a rocky start to their relationship - the former Indianapolis 500 winners tangled during Montoya's early F1 days - Montoya said he's looking forward to racing with Villeneuve.
"We have a lot of history together," Montoya said. "If I can help him, I will."

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[Quality88]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

Jacques Villeneuve is getting a lot more than a test with Bill Davis Racing. The car owner said Friday he plans to give the former Formula One star a Nextel Cup ride next season.
Villeneuve will test one of Davis' trucks next week in Chicago, the first step in what is expected to be a full-time NASCAR career. Davis plans to enter the Canadian in the final seven Truck Series races this season, the ARCA event at Talladega Superspeedway and then a full Cup schedule in 2008.
"It is an experiment, if you will," Davis said. "But he's pretty confident he can do it, and we are, too. I think it'll work out just fine."
Villeneuve, who won the F1 world championship in 1997, has been out of work since last summer when he was released from his BMW-Sauber ride. Villeneuve had said for years that the 36-race NASCAR schedule did not interest him.
Davis said Juan Pablo Montoya's switch to NASCAR opened the eyes of car owners, who now are not as hesitant to sign an open wheel driver.
"I think I opened the door for a lot more people, not just Formula One, but people who were afraid to come to NASCAR," Montoya said. "Myself, being competitive, people are like 'Man, this is a good sport to be in.' It's great for NASCAR because it's going to be the series to be in."
Despite a rocky start to their relationship - the former Indianapolis 500 winners tangled during Montoya's early F1 days - Montoya said he's looking forward to racing with Villeneuve.
"We have a lot of history together," Montoya said. "If I can help him, I will."

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Damn.... we're bein invaded.

[LSC9901]

Originally Posted by Quality88

Damn.... we're bein invaded.

Pretty soon we'll need interpreters in victory lane

[Quality88]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

Pretty soon we'll need interpreters in victory lane

blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

[Bob Tanner]

Wow! I heard that this was in the pipeline last season but thought that it had gone away.

He's got the cred's, that's for sure; Indy 500 winner, CART champ and an F1 champ! He's a little older than Juablo, but it'll be interesting to see if he has the tenacity to stay with it long enough to become a stock car driver.

I bet that his style will be a lot less "volatile" than Montoya's.

[Nevadastars]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

I bet that his style will be a lot less "volatile" than Montoya's.

Which means he will be lapped traffic or in spin cycle more than he deserves to be. Shades of Scott Pruitt.

[LSC9901]

I guess I really don't care who the drivers are or where they are from. I just wish they'd be race car drivers instead of celebrities with attitudes.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

I guess I really don't care who the drivers are or where they are from. I just wish they'd be race car drivers instead of celebrities with attitudes.

Exactly why I go to the local short tracks as often as I can. I find myself leaving a local track a lot more satisfied than I do switching channels after a Cup event.

[DOF_power]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

Wow! I heard that this was in the pipeline last season but thought that it had gone away.

He's got the cred's, that's for sure; Indy 500 winner, CART champ and an F1 champ! He's a little older than Juablo, but it'll be interesting to see if he has the tenacity to stay with it long enough to become a stock car driver.

I bet that his style will be a lot less "volatile" than Montoya's.

But in F1 lately, he's been of pace. That's why both Renault and BMW sacked him. He never really adapted to the new winglet semi-active narrowtrack F1 racers post 2000 (and while F1 needs a serious clean-up, he's to blame too).

In NASCAR tough, he shouldn't have that problem.

[DOF_power]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

Exactly why I go to the local short tracks as often as I can. I find myself leaving a local track a lot more satisfied than I do switching channels after a Cup event.

I don't have a problem with the driver's attitude if he/they work hard with team and race the car.

[wingkey1]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

But in F1 lately, he's been off pace. That's why both Renault and BMW sacked him. He never really adapted to the new winglet semi-active narrowtrack F1 racers post 2000 (and while F1 needs a serious clean-up, he's to blame too).

In NASCAR tough, he shouldn't have that problem.

Something "died" in V a number of years ago. Don't know what, don't know why, but flame was weak. Worked for HP we did. There were questions around his "flame" beginning immediately after his first year. His stats could well be "talked off" as "understandable/acceptable" for a variety of reasons (excuses?), but investors were seeing something in his eyes that was not re-affirming.

Possible he is now in - "any port in a storm" mode. Time will tell.

[DOF_power]

Well let's see:

- Williams after loosing their designer Newey and the Renault engine, they went down the drain
- his main rival, more than Hill in 96 and Schumacher in 97 was Patrick Head, and now with the Newey-Hill brigade gone Head became all powerful and sank the team
- the BAR days, disaster, was there just for the money (similar to Fitipaldi's Copersucar experience)
- Renault, big chance and he blew it; the team spearhead by Alonso became champions in 2005/2006
- BMW, again big chance he blew it, as BMW are now a strong 3rd and will be championship contenders next year

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

But in F1 lately, he's been of pace. That's why both Renault and BMW sacked him. He never really adapted to the new winglet semi-active narrowtrack F1 racers post 2000 (and while F1 needs a serious clean-up, he's to blame too).

In NASCAR tough, he shouldn't have that problem.

Thank you, DOF. I knew there was some story why Jacques' fortunes suddenly began to spiral but I never took the time to search it out. I quit following F1 back in 1991 and have followed it only marginally since then. I used to follow it and Moto GP closely on EuroSports-TV each Sunday.

I believe that Juan Pablo rather laid down the gauntlet to hi-tech open-wheeled drivers when he transitioned to Cup cars. I think Jacques can make the racing transition but how will NASCAR's schedule and life style suit him? (Of course, i thought that JP would be gone shortly after the Brickyard 400 this year, so what do I know, eh?)
Somewhere I heard that Toro-Rosso still had an interest in Scott Speed and that Dr. Helmut was in favor of seeing them field a third team in Cup next year for him? That sounds like a real figment of someone's imagination to me.

[DOF_power]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

Thank you, DOF. I knew there was some story why Jacques' fortunes suddenly began to spiral but I never took the time to search it out.

Villeneuve was partially unlucky and partially blew it.

The thing is, regardless of technology and times GP/F1 racing was, is, and will be the most cruel form of motor-sport.

And for those who don't adapt/blew it, there's no mercy nor sympathy just someone else in line to replace then.

He's not the first nor last to experience this, and this is how things always were and will always be.

But at least he's had his chance at the top, the vast majority were not so lucky (nor will the present/future ones be).

I believe that Juan Pablo rather laid down the gauntlet to hi-tech open-wheeled drivers when he transitioned to Cup cars.

Montoya's switch to McLaren and his difficult personality worked against him in F1.
At McLaren, Ron and the team always have their darlings, witch is why he's shown his sympathy twards Alonso.

As opposed to Schumacher and Alonso, in F1, he wasn't considered a hard working guy, worried and commited about/with the car's development and setup.
But now that he's in NASCAR we're hearing he's changed, and that he's not the lazy and difficult to work with person we knew him during his F1 period.

I guess it depends on the team. As BMW (and Webber) got just as sick about Williams as he did. And nor Prost, nor Couldhard have left McLaren in the best of terms (nor is Alonso in the best relationship with team now).

Montoya still loves those cars, but he hates their flaws (the result of almost 15 years of idiotic rules done by people with no knowledge and understanding of aerodynamics, electronics, suspensions, tires), and the B* behavior of the old/conservative teams that he had to endure. And he could have worked harder and be less difficult (arrogance isn't implied here as all F1 drivers are so, or need to be so if they ever want to beat anyone).



The technology isn't the problem per se, as its direction and restrictions are.
The problem with F1 single seaters go into 3 categories:
- aerodynamics
- lack of mecanical grip
- restricted/spec engines that are severly underpowered vs. the chassis aerodynamics.


It all started with the the ban of the active ride cars (with their active suspensions), followed by the ban of slick tires, the reduction of the track width, and the lift of the front wing.
Witch meant that teams concentrated on constantly redesigning winglets/ear/horns/chimneys/barges-aerodynamics, redesigning suspensions, modifying weight distribution, rewriting TC software (legal or illegal-hidden TC when it was allowed or banned), and even brakes for every race.

And to find the way to do this properly they spent even more on secondary wind tunnels, super CFD computers, super simulators, technology centers etc.
Now all of a sudden the active cars (and the turbo cars and ground effects cars before them) look cheap and provided more "bang for buck".

The lift of the front wing means that the cars no longer have any stability when encountering dirty air and the front wheels actually lose contact.
The the dirty air air is there because of the aero, with is a result of:
- loss of the big wings
- loss of mecanical grip, stability (gone wit the loss of slicks, widetrack and active suspensions)
- because the front wing was lifted (new front ear/winglet design)
- because movable aerodynamics and ground effects are banned
- loss of power (to compensate straight line loss of speed via increased cornering speeds)

Then there's the engines. The 19k rev limit lacks the final kick (beside the loss of clean air "power") when your about to overtake someone on the straights. Felipe Massa of Ferrari said pre-season that he thinks that this season, overtaking will be less because of the 19k rev limit.
The new Wimp-O-8s means drivers barely lift for fast corners, and braking is later, thus hurting the chance of an overtaking opportunity as well as making once difficult corners (like Eau Rouge of Spa) too easy (Wurz, Massa and other F1 drivers said this, not me).

It's one mess after another.
And TC and paddle shifted semi-automatics that traditionalists complain (I don't) don't even make on the (main) list compared to the real problems.

I think Jacques can make the racing transition but how will NASCAR's schedule and life style suit him? (Of course, i thought that JP would be gone shortly after the Brickyard 400 this year, so what do I know, eh?)
Somewhere I heard that Toro-Rosso still had an interest in Scott Speed and that Dr. Helmut was in favor of seeing them field a third team in Cup next year for him? That sounds like a real figment of someone's imagination to me.

Torro-Rosso were a bunch of idiots. They have a crap car, nobody could have done better.

[DOF_power]

On Scott Speed and americans in F1.

The reality is: Open Wheel Racing in the USA for IRL and CHAMP CAR is not taken seriously as a source for future F1 talent and the only reason Scott got into F1 was because of Red Bull's contest. It was Red Bull who "wanted" an American driver in F1 , not the so called by americans "European community" (again - who is that exactly ?).
The reason for the not taking the USA seriously ?
Who knows ?
But splitting up CART to form the IRL and CHAMP CAR didn't exactly help given the way things have turned out.
Nor did Michael Andretti's "performance" and behavior.

It seems to me that the "European community" may look towards America as a place where ex-F1 stars go AFTER their career is done at the elite level rather than the other way around. Hopefully Bourdais will reverse that notion since Zanardi and DaMatta couldn't (admittedly driving dogs).

Until americans go racing in Europe regularly in Open Wheel feeder series like GP2, World Series of Renault, Formula BMW, and British (or any Euro) F3 and doing well on their own merit you won't be taken seriously by the "European community". Scott went through the British F3, Formula Renault, German Formula Renault , and GP2 AFTER he'd won the Red Bull contest.

Red Bull Driver Search

You have to then ask what if John Edwards or Colin Fleming had won and where are they now ?

We'll never know what Scott would have done in a BMW F1.07 unfortunately but had he come up through the ranks in Formula BMW , there would be less doubt by "Europeans" and he'd be taken more seriously.

If Americans continue to believe that racing in the US feeder series or IRL/CHAMP CAR is going to get F1 talent scouts notice, then, I think you may be deluding yourself because the series are considered (for whatever reason) not as competitive as the the European feeder series held on F1 tracks.

The other point to finish the thought is: Use JV's and JPM's formula (notice they both came from CART which was respected by the F1 team bosses like Frank Williams). Have a working relationship with an F1 team in terms of developing a driver through the American Open Wheel Series and join a competitive F1 team (or at least a midpack team). Unfortunately Bourdais has fallen trap to the "Beggars can't be Choosers" mold and won't be able to show that the American Series Champion can compete in F1 . He may follow in Da Matta's and Zanardi's foot steps (deja vu all over again).