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Villeneuve would be 'crackers'
to return
to CART
according to Eddie Irvine
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2002.08.18
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Jaguar driver Eddie
Irvine thinks Jacques Villeneuve would be mad to return to the
States to compete as the 1997 champion has nothing to prove. Over
the past week, reports have surfaced that BAR boss, Dave Richards
would willingly allow his driver to make the switch to the CART
series in an attempt to save the 12 million pounds he will be forced
to pay the Canadian driver is he stays with the team next season.
However when asked it about the
possibility of such a move in Thursday's press conference, Jacques
denied any knowledge of the switch and claimed he would need a
golden contract to move from where he is right now. Richards
believes it will be a better scenario for all concerned if his
driver returned to the American series for 12 months, taking up a 6
million pound offer from the Player's Forsythe team then returning
to Formula One in 2004.
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JV
smokes 'em as he battles with Eddie at the 2002 European GP.
Photo: F1 Live.
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Irvine believes his
colleague would be 'crackers' if he accepted a deal like that, the
Irishman fully believing that once you leave the pinnacle of
Motorsports, there is no return.
"The other big
talking point in recent days has been the suggestion that Jacques
Villeneuve could take a year off from his BAR contract to return to
CART racing in the United States," he said in the Sun. "He
will be crackers if he accepts the deal because once you leave F1
you run the risk of never returning. Anyway, Jacques has been there
and done it so has nothing to prove. It's also a dangerous series.
It appears BAR would like him to take up a CART offer so they can
use the £12million they would have paid him for 2003 on improving
next year's car. I don't buy that. Any cash saved on not having
Jacques next year could only go towards making their 2004 car
better. "
Eddie has yet to
announce his plans for the new season, leading to strong speculation
that he may find himself without a drive in the series. So would he
think about moving across the Atlantic to race in another series?
"No. I've been
there and I've watched it. From Formula One, it would be like going
to the British Touring Car Championship. It would be interesting in
another capacity, but not as a driver," Eddie said. "I
think there was a lady (Sarah Fisher) on pole position at the last
IRL event, so really . . .I would never drive in the States. I've no
interest in it whatsoever. I went there in '93 and looked at it when
I was doing Japanese 3000 as Toyota were going to go into it and
they wanted me to have a look at doing Indy Cars. I did look at it,
and although a step forward in that it was a bigger series, the
Japanese series was definitely more professional."
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