Villeneuve: Sauber rift helped me

The Canadian claimed that the only way to resolve some of his frustrations about his treatment at the team was to speak out in public.

And although that course of action eventually cleared the air with team management, at a time when his future at Sauber was in doubt, he has told autosport.com that he should have kept quiet and sorted out the matter behind closed doors.

"I did say a few things because the team had not listened to me," said Villeneuve, whose frustrations famously boiled over once when his testing with the team was cut short at Barcelona despite the fact he wanted more mileage in the car.

"At some point I was getting somehow frustrated and funnily talking to the media helped me to get what I wanted - but it was a wrong way to go about it.

"Part of the reason it was not happening was there was no budget to do it, to make changes. So they said they believed me but they could not or would not make a change, without explaining why.

"Once everything got explained, we all calmed down and the frustration ran away. I had never been in the team where the money was limited. It was a completely different approach for me. I just needed time to adjust to what we could and what we could not do. "

The budget frustrations are now likely to be a thing of the past thank to the team's buy-out by BMW. And with Villeneuve's contract with the team having recently been confirmed by the German car manufacturer, he is excited about the team's prospect for 2006.

"It is great to be with a manufacturer," he explained. "Ultimately it will be a new team but at the moment it is with the old elements with new bits added  on. They  (the old and new) will have to learn from each other.

"I have already been told that this year it will be easier to get things changed. There is a very positive approach there and I am very happy about that."