Villeneuve: BAR has a lot to do

Villeneuve won his title with Williams in 1997, his second season in F1. But two years later he moved to the new BAR team, run by his friend and manager Craig Pollock. After a disasterous first season, when the team failed to score a single point, Villeneuve has helped lift the outfit's performances and has scored two podium finishes this season.

But he has admitted to Autosport that there is still a lot of work to do before the team is a genuine frontrunner, and feels it is unlikely that he will ever race for another leading team.

When asked if he is locked out of driving for a top outfit, he said: "There is a good chance that might have happened, yes."

As for the future of BAR, he said: "It all depends on the people at the factory and how they're working on next year's car. I don't think anyone's happy with where we are now. The danger is people becoming comfortable in their positions and just accept that 'yeah we can fight for points'. If that happens then it will be the end. I haven't seen that yet so at least that's encouraging."

Villeneuve also told Autosport that he does not believe it is fair to compare four-time world champion Michael Schumacher with Ayrton Senna or Alain Prost.

"Schumacher's done some great things but there is a difference," he said. "Everyone says he is better than Senna and Prost but I disagree on that because Senna and Prost were fighting against each other - whereas Michael doesn't have a team mate he is fighting against. So he gets all the wins and the championships instead of half of them. People forget to look at that."

For the full interview, see this week's Autosport, on sale tomorrow (Thursday).