Villeneuve Rules Out Competitive Season

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve is not confident his British American Racing team will be competitive enough to fight for fifth place in this year's Constructors' Championship.

The 1997 World Champion, who turned 31 on Wednesday, has endured a disappointing start of his 2002 season, with BAR's Honda-powered 004 chassis struggling to find the necessary speed to fight for the top ten in most races.

Villeneuve's best finish so far has been an eighth place in Malaysia.

The former Williams driver is aiming to repeat last year's seventh place in the drivers' standings, but reckons it will not be easy considering the competitiveness of the top five teams.

"We can salvage the season maybe, but we won't be competitive," Villeneuve was quoted as saying by Ananova. "We have to shoot for what we can. In the last two years I've been seventh in the Drivers' Championship, which is right after the top three teams.

"I still believe we can do that again but it's still not a nice number. There are three teams that cannot be beaten for us anyway - Williams, Ferrari and McLaren. If we can be just behind them then that would be salvaging something, but I doubt if we can beat Sauber as they are going to be very competitive and then there is Renault.

"Team-wise being in the top five doesn't sound good, but even that will be hard for us this year."

Following his close friend and former manager Craig Pollock, Villeneuve joined the Brackley-based squad when they started to compete in 1999, but two third places is all he has to show for after three difficult seasons.

Pollock, still a shareholder at BAR, left the helm of the team at the end of last year, being replaced by former Benetton boss David Richards.

The new boss, determined to take BAR to the top, has made radical changes within the team's structure, and though he believes it will take time before the results are better, Villeneuve thinks Richards' entry is positive for them.

"As I have been here since the beginning I still want to have success with this team and bring this team to victory," he added. "Now it looks like this could allow us to do that. Big changes have happened now so I want to see what these changes bring.

"We won't see anything happening in the next month or two. We need to get the ball rolling, get everything working well together. What's happened has given a kick in the pants to everyone.

"If we had been winning then comfort would not have been a bad thing. But we weren't winning and the comfort was there. That's what was wrong. If you are at the back of the pack and still everybody is happy about it then that means there is something wrong."