Pollock's Exit Hard to Digest, Says Villeneuve

Craig Pollock's sudden departure as BAR Formula One boss will be hard to come to terms with, the team's driver and former World Champion Jacques Villeneuve said on Tuesday.

Pollock is Villeneuve's mentor, the Canadian's former schoolteacher in Switzerland who became his manager and then team principal when British American Racing started racing in 1999.

"There wasn't much time for a reaction actually, it was all done very quickly," Villeneuve said at the launch of the team's 2002 Formula One car when asked for his reaction to Monday's news of Pollock's standing down.

"It's probably better this way, not too much time to think and get happy or angry. It's been tough for three years, it's been very tough and there have been changes before and every change is unsettling. This one is definitely the most difficult for me to digest. Only time will tell if its for the best or worse."

BAR announced that David Richards, the former Benetton team principal who has since taken over the running of the World Rally Championship, was replacing Pollock. Pollock will remain connected to the team as a shareholder and board member and will also go back to being Villeneuve's manager, Richards told reporters.

He said he had breakfast with Villeneuve on Tuesday, his first real meeting with a man he was merely on nodding terms with before as principal of a rival team, and described the Canadian as "a key element" to BAR.