JV: I feel like a baby again

Villeneuve returned to the cockpit at the Chinese Grand Prix to replace the outgoing Jarno Trulli at Renault for the final three races of the season. The experience wasn't a good one with all three finishes outside the points and Villeneuve confessing that he found the races difficult physically, particularly his first race in Shanghai.

"I was disappointed with the end result - not with my driving," he told F1 Racing magazine. "The fact is, I pushed until the end despite having been out of the car for 11 months and with only two days testing under my belt. I was quite happy with what I did. And, speaking with other drivers, they told me it was one of the more physical tracks on the calendar, so I was happy I could keep working hard until the end."

Villeneuve now joins Sauber after signing a two-year deal with the Swiss-based team. Unlike the comments made ahead of his and BAR's journey back in 1999, Villeneuve admits that neither he nor the team are expected great things, he's just glad to be racing against the best drivers in the world again.

"It's not just a matter of driving fast cars; I want to drive against the best," he said. "And the best is in Formula 1. There's no dream. I visited the (Sauber) team, spoke with (team boss) Peter and the energy flowed right away. We talked and shook hands - that's how it should be.

"And I know that everyone within the team will work hard. They're not a political team. They're level-headed and sensible - nobody ever criticises anyone within the team. That's one thing I really wanted - I didn't want to find myself in the situation I had been in before."

That's not to say that Villeneuve doesn't believe he can't win the championship again. "I've done it once, I can do it again," he said. "There's no time limit. I feel like a baby, like it's 1996 again. There's plenty of time ahead of me. If something's easy, then it's no fun. I just want to be fighting people the whole time."