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Villeneuve will drive
on, says Pollock
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Reuters
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2003.06.16
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Jacques Villeneuve
has a 'burning desire' to win again and is not about to turn his
back on Formula One, according to the Canadian's manager Craig
Pollock.
While the former World Champion had a
depressing home Grand Prix on Sunday, retiring for the third year in
a row at a circuit named after his late father Gilles, Pollock said
the 32-year-old would return in 2004.
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"I am very
confident he is going to be in Formula One next year," the Scot
told Reuters. "I think it would be the greatest shame for
Formula One to lose a personality such as Jacques."
Villeneuve won the World
Championship in a dominant Williams in 1997 but has been at BAR
since 1999, a Honda-powered team that have yet to win a race.
His contract expires at
the end of the year and there is considerable uncertainty about the
future of a driver who is one of the highest paid in the sport.
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone said he would like to see him
move to a top team.
"We'd like to see
him in a good car. How can he be motivated? He's won the CART
series, he's won the World Championship, he's won a lot of
races," Ecclestone said in the Montreal paddock.
"You imagine, he
comes to a race and he says 'if I really do a good job maybe I can
qualify 10th and maybe in the race I can run eighth or ninth'.
What's the difference to him? if he's 13th or seventh it's the same.
"He's not
motivated. I'd like to see him in the Ferrari," added
Ecclestone. "He told me 'Put me in the second Ferrari beside
Michael (Schumacher) and I'll drive for nothing'. But it's not going
to happen."
Future Prospects
Pollock said he was
talking to several teams about Villeneuve's prospects.
"He'll be sitting
in a Formula One car in the future, exactly which team... obviously
his contract terminates at the end of the season and at the moment
for next year he is still a free agent," he said. "But
there have been certain doors left slightly ajar that have been
obviously walked in through and we are discussing.
"Its not a question
of taking a pay cut. I think it's a question of negotiating a
contract and a deal with a team where both parties are going to come
out happy.
"When (Ayrton)
Senna went to Williams he wanted to win so he took, as you would
call it, a pay cut. He negotiated in a different way," said
Pollock. "It's not just wins. Jacques is wanting championships.
That's his burning desire."
"What's more
important - winning races or earning money? At this stage in his
career I suppose it's a little bit like (Alain) Prost and Senna. At
a certain stage in their careers what do you want to do?"
Pollock said the
Canadian Grand Prix was always a particularly stressful time for the
driver and shrugged off suggestions that Canadians were beginning to
turn against their homegrown hero.
"The way I look at
it, this year's turned into being like a Villeneuve mania, whether
it's positive or negative," he said. "I just think this
year's 10 times worse than any other year and it's also due to the
speculation of what's going to happen with Villeneuve in the
future."
"It's the hardest
race psychologically for him because there is so much pressure put
on by Canadians expecting so much."
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