JV set for BAR return

Team principal David Richards still insists that Button will be with the team next year, but Frank Williams reckons the matter may not be resolved for months. According to this week's top story in Autosport, sources close to the magazine have revealed that Villeneuve could even be selected over Button should BAR win the contract battle and Jenson remain determined not to drive one of its cars.

"BAR needs someone that can adapt to the team very quickly," Villeneuve told Autosport exclusively. "I'm experienced, I know what it takes to win and I've won before. I've been with the team through the hardest time and we all survived it together until this year, until everything changed. So it's unfinished business and that means I'm very hungry."

Villeneuve and BAR team prinicipal David Richards fell out publicly after the French-Canadian, who had driven for the team since its inception in 1999, was dropped in place of Takuma Sato at the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix. But Villeneuve says that any resentment is in the past.

"We've cleared that," he said. "Anything personal is always difficult to clear because you are in the middle of its and it's hard to have a perspective. I've led my life always shutting the book on the past and going forwards. So there's no reason to do it differently now."

Villeneuve is not the team's only option. David Coulthard is still known to be actively searching for a competitive drive in 2005, while former McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen has been connected to an F1 comeback with BAR. The team's test driver Anthony Davidson is also pushing hard for a race seat.