Villeneuve prepared to quit F1

Speaking at a charity ski marathon at the weekend, the 1997 champ spoke of his frustration after five winless seasons since he took the title, and stated that unless he could find himself a place with top team when his contract expires at BAR at the of the 2003 season he would walk away from F1.

"Finding myself only with opportunities near the bottom of the grid doesn't interest me and I'll stop," he said. "I will have to get an offer from a team at the front of the grid or one that's making big progress so that you can see it will be competitive the next year.

"But, it's not a question of deciding where I want to go, if you win races, you'll get offers and if you don't, then you won't get much. A bad season in 2003 and I'll be at staying home the next."

Since joining BAR in 1999 Villeneuve has scored only two podium finishes, but he's been impressed by the changes that have been made since David Richards took control and believes that next season's 005 could be the team's best car so far.

"There's a whole new group of technical people working on it and the numbers on the car look amazing, so we should make a big leap forward," he said. "For once the expectations are high and basically realistic, whereas in the past, every time we had expectations we were hoping for Christmas and it never happened."

BAR will unveil its new car in Barcelona on January 14.