BMW expect Villeneuve to be on the pace

BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen said on Sunday he was confident the Canadian had overcome the problems that had critics this year writing off the former World Champion's Formula One future.

Villeneuve, the 1997 champion with Williams, was confirmed by BMW only last week despite insisting he had a watertight contract for 2006 after the Munich carmaker bought Sauber.

"We had some meetings, some discussions and we got the impression that he is very motivated for next year to continue with the performance he showed towards the end of the year," Theissen told Reuters.

"So on that basis we decided for him to be the other driver next year.

"The relationship is okay. We had some meetings and it's perfect now.

"Towards the end of the season he was about Felipe (Massa)'s pace so I am confident he will do a good job next year. It's certainly a different situation to last year where he returned from a break.

"Now he has driven this car on Michelin tyres for an entire season so there's no reason why he shouldn't be strong from the beginning.

"He'll get the same support as Nick and we expect him to be as strong as Nick."

Villeneuve, 34, sat out most of 2004 after being dropped by BAR and was well off Massa's pace in the early races of this year as he struggled to get to grips with a car that the team admitted was disappointingly slow.

Brazilian Massa has since joined Ferrari to drive alongside seven times champion Michael Schumacher. Heidfeld has moved from Williams.

Third Driver

BMW considered alternatives to Villeneuve, including France's CART champion Sebastien Bourdais, who has said the Canadian's contract proved insurmountable.

Theissen said those talks did not amount to much.

"They were never really serious. We checked out the situation about several drivers but they were not serious negotiations. We pretty soon focused on Jacques.

"We haven't been under time pressure. Nick was confirmed and we will only have one car up until mid-January so we took our time," added Theissen, speaking by telephone from BMW's end of season party in Seefeld, Austria.

"We waited for the end of the season and then analysed Jacques' performance over the season.

"It was clear that he had a poor first half but then improved. He caught up and in the second half was on the level of his teammate."

BMW, who are allowed to run a third car in Friday practice after Sauber finished eighth in the 2005 standings, have yet to announce their third driver.

"Nothing is fixed, that's the next thing we deal with," said Theissen. "We have options in both directions, a young promising guy or an experienced test driver."

BMW have also lost the services of Austrian Franz Tost, the track operations manager recruited by Red Bull as the new boss of their Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Theissen said the impact of that would be minimal: "It won't hurt the team because actually we had two people who could do the same job of team manager, Beat Zender and Franz Tost. Beat will stay in this position for the future."

Theissen expected champions Renault and runners-up McLaren to again be the strongest teams, at least early on.

"But then it can change...over the years we have experienced more progress over a season than over the winter. It might be different this year with the regulations changing but this could carry some surprises as well."

Teams are entering new territory next year with the change from 3.0 litre V10 engines to smaller 2.4 litre V8s.