Villeneuve Welcomes Sauber Buyout

The French-Canadian, who joined the Sauber team at the start of this year, believes that the extra finance that the BMW deal will hand the Swiss outfit will finally allow them to reach their full potential.

Villeneuve has complained several times this year that a lack of budget is holding Sauber back.

Speaking exclusively to Autosport-Atlas during testing at Jerez in Spain on Wednesday, Villeneuve said: "It is just fantastic. It is good for the team and I am very excited about it.

"It will solve all the problems we have. We can now properly test with two cars, and develop the car a lot further so we can ask for more. We will be able to use the wind-tunnel more, and we can even afford a third driver so I can only see good things from now on."

Although Villeneuve has a contract with Sauber for next year, it is not clear what impact the new BMW deal with have on this deal.

"If I stay there for next year or not, I don't know," he said.

When Autosport-Atlas suggested that surely Villeneuve would have ensured his contract was water-tight, a grin spread across his face as he cheekily made reference to the sport's problems after the United States Grand Prix fiasco.

"Well, maybe," he said. "I will stay until the end of Formula One, which won't be long anyway!"