Villeneuve Says He's Not Fit Enough

An exhausted Jacques Villeneuve said he had not prepared well enough for circuits like Suzuka after failing to score at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday.

After being brought in by Renault for the final three races of the season to boost their bid for second place, the 1997 World Champion again looked out of sorts in finishing 10th at Suzuka.

"This year the cars are really fast," said the Canadian. "The training (I did) just wasn't enough for this track."

Villeneuve blamed the weather for depriving him of much-needed practice time over the weekend after a typhoon caused Saturday's qualifying to be postponed to the morning of the race.

"It would have been good to have got the miles on Friday and Saturday," said the Canadian, who won the World Championship with Williams. "But the weather we had made it impossible."

Villeneuve was 11th at last month's inaugural Chinese Grand Prix in his first race since he acrimoniously left BAR before the October 2003 Japanese Grand Prix.

Renault teammate Fernando Alonso was fifth but with BAR drivers Jenson Button and Takuma Sato finishing third and fourth, BAR are almost certain to finish the season second behind champions Ferrari.

"The car was really, really, really, really hard to drive and that didn't help," said Villeneuve, who joins Ferrari-powered Sauber at the end of the season. "By the third pitstop I had lost too much time and by then I got tired as well."

Villeneuve acknowledged it could take time to get back to his best.

"When you see people going away from you, mentally you're pained," said the 33-year-old, who was prevented from testing in Europe after Shanghai due to visa problems. "This time I can go back, test, train and it will be good."