Villeneuve Better Racer than Schumacher, Says Clear

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve is better than German Michael Schumacher when it comes to driving a racing car, according to the BAR driver's race engineer Jock Clear.

"I think that Michael Schumacher is the most complete racing driver in the world in that he knows how to get the best out of the people around him," Clear said on Villeneuve's website. "But when it comes to driving a racing car then I think that Jacques is a better racing driver than Michael.

"If you put both of them in a Ferrari then Schumacher would win as he's been there for the past six years. But if you put both of them in, say, the Williams, then Jacques would beat Michael."

Clear, who worked alongside Villeneuve in his Championship-winning year at the Williams team and who followed the Canadian when he went to BAR in 1999, believes Schumacher deserves credit for turning Ferrari around, but added that Villeneuve would not feel comfortable working in the German's situation.

"Everybody knows that Michael has the whole weight of Ferrari behind him and that Rubens Barrichello has no substantial support. Everyone is there to support Schumacher - and some of the credit for creating that environment must go to Michael.

"Jacques has never wanted that type of situation, and I don't think he'll be comfortable in that situation because he's not that type of guy, but if you take the cynical/business point of view then Michael has put himself in a situation that makes him more competitive."

Villeneuve, World Champion in 1997, has struggled to score points since he joined the Brackley-based team three years ago, and in 2001 he has been often outpaced by his new teammate Olivier Panis. However, Clear believes Villeneuve is not giving it all this season.

"I think that there's that special something inside Jacques that he's not using at the moment," Clear added.

"It's still there, and we all know it's still there, but drivers of his talent only have a finite amount of that something special and I think if you asked them to use that something out of the ordinary just to qualify ninth rather than eleventh then you would be abusing that talent."

30-year old Villeneuve has scored seven points so far to his teammate's five and BAR are currently lying in sixth place in the Constructors' Championship.