Villeneuve: BAR 'not quick enough'

Villeneuve has cited that 2002 will be a make-or-break season for him at BAR, and says the performance of the car is critical to him staying for another season. The BARs of Villeneuve and team-mate Olivier Panis finished the opening day in 17th and 18th places, just half a second clear of Alex Yoong's Minardi-Asiatech.

"We weren't competitive today, both in terminal speed and lap time," said the 1997 world champion. "The car isn't that bad to drive, it's a bit oversteery but not that far off. We are just not quick enough and I'm not sure how we can get it there."

The French-Canadian lost track time with a hydraulic problem but admitted that it hadn't proved that critical.

"We lost 45 minutes but we managed to put new tyres on at the end of the session," he added. "For sure, the extra set-up time would have been very useful. In the first hour you mainly go around, try and figure out what the track is doing and then you work on set-up in the afternoon and put on a couple of sets of tyres in the last 10 minutes. Today we are not very quick down the straight either, and we need to be."