Villeneuve says penalties are pointless

Villeneuve qualified a lowly 17th in Austria but adopted an aggressive two-stop strategy in the race, which allowed him to pass a number of cars. But he also picked up a penalty for an opening lap manoeuvre that took out Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Arrows.

"We have always concentrated on race set-up, and in Austria half a second covers 10 cars, so we were quite far back," said Villeneuve. "But we had a different strategy that allowed me to go for it but, these days, you get penalties when you do that, so there's not much point any more."

Villeneuve's BAR-Honda team has yet to score a point in 2002 and the French-Canadian was not bubbling over with enthusiasm about the possibility of doing so in Monte Carlo.

"We're close to where we were in 1999 and the car is not very competitive or reliable so it's not looking good for us," he said, candidly. "On the other hand, we had a good race here last year and we seem better off in slow corners comparatively, so we might be okay."