How the Villeneuve Formula E dream died

Roll your eyes, tut and sneer "what a surprise". To many, the collapse of Jacques Villeneuve's Formula E programme seemed inevitable.

A point-less three races suggest a pointless return to single-seaters for the 1997 Formula 1 world champion, who (unless he finds a route back in the future) exits the series with the parting memory of missing the Punta del Este race because he broke his Dallara's tub in a qualifying crash.

It's easier to chip in with sarcastic comments than it is to examine the evidence and make a fair observation. For all the jokes, Villeneuve is a loss to the series. He was a fine recruit in terms of pedigree and, more importantly, was a credible addition on the driving side.

But he was outperformed, emphatically, by Venturi team-mate Stephane Sarrazin over the first three races. That is unavoidable. The Frenchman has 16 points and lies eighth in the standings. He's also earned a front-row start. Villeneuve, 18th with no points, twice qualified 12th and his best finish was 11th, in Putrajaya.

Debut in Beijing was the first of two lonely races after collision with da Costa © LAT

There are mitigating circumstances. Dive deeper than the numbers on the surface, and you find a campaign that started on the back foot, considerably, having been blighted by mechanical trouble.

In Beijing, Villeneuve had a battery issue in first practice and effectively missed all of the second session with a brake fluid leak. So he did well to qualify 12th, a second behind Sarrazin. But it put him on the backfoot for the race in terms of strategy (track time and regenerating energy are so important in Formula E), and he was ultimately robbed of the chance of any decent result when he was taken out by an apologetic Antonio Felix da Costa.

In Putrajaya, he stopped on track in practice after another technical issue, but in qualifying was only 0.6s slower than Sarrazin. Row-six starts in the first two races don't sound like much, but they actually point to reasonably impressive efforts. And in the madness that was the Putrajaya race, Villeneuve lost a lot of time in the car-change after the second VM200-FE-01 didn't fire up - without that, he would have been nailed-on for a good points finish.

The problems in China and Malaysia turned those races into extended test sessions. Punta del Este should have been the turning point, and it was - just not in the way it had been envisaged.

Villeneuve was underwhelming, to say the least, in practice. By the end of FP2 he was not a million miles away but having finally had solid track time he was still more than half a second slower than Sarrazin.

That lack of progress was one thing, but the major issue came when he crashed in qualifying. He was, to a degree, unfortunate - it was not a high-speed accident - but the damage to his Dallara tub meant he had to miss the race. That was a big, big error, because the Sunday test could have been crucial - as it was for Sarrazin in season one. The lack of relevant (street-circuit) testing made it a golden opportunity for progress.

Short stint was difficult - but Villeneuve was chirpy during that time © LAT

Villeneuve's attitude, even after missing Saturday's race, was positive. "I know exactly what to look for and what to work on," he said. "We're happy with the team because we managed to work on the car and it's competitive.

"It feels good to be part of the season. Whatever you do, you bring it to the next race and the race after, it's always a long-term plan. I've been missing that and it's been nice."

If not being able to take part in the Punta race was unfortunate, what happened on the Sunday morning was almost unforgivable. He crashed his second car, and had to sit out the test until the afternoon. He completed 48 laps (more than Sarrazin, but 35 fewer than the busiest man on the day) and was 3.1s off the pace. Sarrazin was 1.5s quicker and fourth fastest.

That has to go down as the turning point. Because not long after, Autosport heard relations had cooled. And within weeks, Villeneuve had left the team and the project he had been so excited by.

The official line that the Villeneuve/Venturi split was "mutual" is bang on. It's not as simple as a driver not doing a good enough job, or not being cut out for a full campaign.

Neither wants to get into a public war of words, which is understandable. But it's understood the friction built after Punta. On his side, Villeneuve was certainly frustrated by the number of technical issues the team was encountering, albeit holding on to the hope his fortunes would change.

Villeneuve has driven unreliable cars before in his career © LAT

"I've had seasons like that," he said of the issues. "I had a season with BAR [in 1999] where every race the car was breaking down. That's the thing with the single-day event, it puts you on the back foot and you can't recover."

But it's equally understandable that the team expected a greater rate of progress from a driver of Villeneuve's calibre. Venturi has the data at its disposal and Punta served as a wake-up call. Any pre-season doubts over whether he had the ability to adapt and kick on would have returned. And the damage he did in his crashes on Saturday and Sunday was not good for morale.

Dropping out fits the narrative of a bizarre post-world championship career, but Villeneuve had been committed to - and excited by - the prospect of a full season for a change. What had endeared Venturi to him, beyond a personal relationship with owner Gildo Pastor, was its willingness to take on a driver line-up with an average age of 42 - the highest on the grid. It made him feel wanted.

"There wasn't this approach of 'we need this 16-year-old', the team wanted experience to help move forward," he explained. "That was a window of opportunity."

It was one Villeneuve genuinely wanted to grasp. He said, sincerely, his target was "to get to the point where we can fight for podiums and a win. I almost have to prove myself more than before entering IndyCar for example, which is fun, it puts the pressure on."

For someone who hasn't won a single-seater race since his title-winning 1997 campaign, it was unavoidable that he arrived in Formula E with plenty of question marks and expectations.

Could he adapt? Could he win? Could he see out the season?

The blunt answer, to all three, is no. Who knows if he'll return, in Formula E or elsewhere. But this was his first chance in a long time to get back to the level that once excited so many, and it has not played out as hoped.

And that's ultimately the biggest loss for fans of him, and the series.