Sauber & Villeneuve...

[|Nuno|]

Sauber says relationship with Villeneuve is strained


Team boss Peter Sauber says his outfit's relationship with Jacques Villeneuve is strained. "The partnership between Jacques Villeneuve and Sauber Petronas is currently at a difficult point," Sauber told Reuters.


Villeneuve was scheduled to test for two days this week at Barcelona but after a difficult first day the team brought in Felipe Massa to replace the Canadian.

"The objective of our test in Barcelona is to evaluate new aerodynamic components," Sauber said. "Our times were so slow and inconsistent on Wednesday that the engineers were not certain about the cause. We therefore decided to continue the test with Felipe Massa in order to have another reference."

Sauber declined to comment on whether he was thinking about replacing Villeneuve saying he did not want to strain the relationship further by saying anything.
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Hopefully they'll get rid of him. The guy can't even test properly...

[ZfrkS62]

I've said it before and i'll say it again, Villenuve is a washed up hack :P

[racer_f50]

I've said it before and i'll say it again, Villenuve is a washed up hack :Psure seems to be, after all the hype about him coming back he's really amounting to nothing :lol:

[Toronto]

note to self, never switch from a good team to BAR :wink:
... cause it is down hill from there

[ae86_16v]

Damn that sucks. Yeah, there were a lot of hype about him coming back. I was actuallly hoping that he'll do well.

[gucom]

Sauber declined to comment on whether he was thinking about replacing Villeneuve saying he did not want to strain the relationship further by saying anything.

he's implying himself that he is indeed thinking of replacing JV...cos if he'd say what he's thinking, it'd train the relationship further...so he must be thinking of replacing him :idea:

[saadie]

hmm ... imo ... when the engineres asked hows the car massa said its good .. JV says the car is shit .... thats y massa gets to do more testing then JV ..... IMO the eniners are shyt ... i mean how can ye ahve a multi million dollar wind tunnel .. and yer car on the rear end is shyt .... so imo its like this ... JV the car is shyt ... engineres up yours JV .... its like a fight going on ... and someone is gonna get kicked .. either JV or the engineres

[ikon2003]

Another nice little tid-bit Nuno. Thanks.

Hopefully Sauber will get more competitive this year, (as Ferrari is obviously not dominating as it has before, it seems like a good time) but if this kinda junk keeps up, well...good luck.

[ZfrkS62]

hmm ... imo ... when the engineres asked hows the car massa said its good .. JV says the car is shit .... thats y massa gets to do more testing then JV ..... IMO the eniners are shyt ... i mean how can ye ahve a multi million dollar wind tunnel .. and yer car on the rear end is shyt .... so imo its like this ... JV the car is shyt ... engineres up yours JV .... its like a fight going on ... and someone is gonna get kicked .. either JV or the engineres

Its easier to replace one driver than a team of engineers. especially since the replacement driver somewhat knows the car from testing or what have you.

JV is a whiny little pansy who just looks for reasons other than himself to explain why is so slow :? He should follow Timo Glock's lead and go into the CHAMPCAR series where it's ok to be slow :P

[phantomfocus]

I don't think it is of much suprise the JV is doing poorly. Sauber could have read the writing on the wall when JV was sucking at the end of last year. He was the same then as now, SLOW!

[saadie]

^^ thats not all ... the driver has to be fimiliar wid the car ... and 1 month testing is not enough ... and anyway sauber dosnt have money if yea ahve moey yea have a better car they dont even have a test driver ..

[dulja]

I still feel they should give him a break, he did not do to well at renault 'cause he did not know that car either. it is not easy when you are familiar with one car and jump into the next. no testing does not help the situation one bit. i liked villies driving style, it is a pity. I hope for me and all the other jv fans that he proves everyone wrong.

[saadie]

interesting ... well .. vill was 0.7 secs slower then massa .. now hes 0.2 .... hes improving and hes surly gonna overtake massa easily with tht rate .... maybe next year he'll be in a better team ...
btw there are alot of romours since jacques is a former world champ ..

[tekwar]

it would had been good for him to had at least performed well in one of the first 3 races, but he hasnt and doesnt even seem to be improving. At this rate, i dont see how sauber can afford to keep him onboard.

[phantomfocus]

I had heard that Red Bull may be willing to give either Klein or Luizzi to Sauber for the rest of the season, Red Bull at the moment seems to have one of the more promising driver crops, and this would only help them see Luizzi and Klein side by side in a race. What better expeirence could they get for their drivers.