Official: Villeneuve to race for BMW

A lot of rumours were doing its round if BMW was trying to dump former F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve or not. The team today finally announced Villeneuve will officially line up alongside Nick Heidfeld for the BMW Sauber team in 2006.

BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen explained: "We took a close look at Jacques' performance level at the end of last season. After an extremely tough first half of the year - which showed that even a former World Champion cannot come back after a period away and be competitive from day one - he got closer and closer to his team-mate over the second half of the season. We are in no doubt that Jacques will make the BMW Sauber F1 Team stronger."

"Between 1999 and 2004 I experienced first-hand the difficulties and complexities involved in setting up a new team," said Villeneuve, "but I've never been afraid of a challenge. Sauber was already a good team and now we also have the resources of BMW behind us. I will do everything I can to contribute to the success of the BMW Sauber F1 Team."

Now living in Villars, Switzerland's adopted son will start work for the new team in the first testing session in Jerez on 8th December. At F1Racing.net you will be able to see the first photos from the test in the morning.

About bloody time, IMHO. Villeneuve always said that he had a binding contract with Sauber for 2 seasons, and a takeover clause wasn't in it.

Time to see a Canadian on the podium again.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

i hope he pulls finger and acheives something.


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Tony

Im glad its happened like this, it makes me sick when contracts are not honoured.

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oh yippee, another year of his moaning and underachieving. i can't wait.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

dont remember him moaning. And he was as quick as massa in the 2nd half. Good news though!

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She says brief things, her love’s a pony
My love’s subliminal

Yay , Now Heidfeld can beat a ex-f1 world champion , cant wait

im sticking up for villeneuve! go JV


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

Me too, F1 needs more people like Jaques. He is part of Formula 1 history!

f1 history , oh yeah , he is the most bad driver in history

... with a championship under his belt... yeah he must be bad.

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people forget that!

villeneuve went to a highly under achieving potential of a car and as expected came away with zilch.

imagine a good set of rubber, engine and chassis under his hairy arse and he might spring some surprises.

if only he was there for 2004!


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

"imagine a good set of rubber, engine and chassis under his hairy arse and he might spring some surprises."

spare the ugly details

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am glad he is racing still

i was quick to jump on the bash'jv bandwagon last year but in the latter half he did improve

he is also an icon, outspoken etc. always fun to listen to

i like him

always have. !

he WILL perform well.. he knows if he dont BMW will kick him asap

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

I hope he can do well.

Next season looks like will be good.

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Rocker

Great News

I want JV to Drive his "Hairy Arse" off this season i would love to see him banging wheels with Schumacher and the new Young guns

This guy is a top driver don't write him off

The Thunder from Downunder

he was the best. he is still good better than most on grid but he was better with slicks and slower cars.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

tbh, I'm a massive JV fan, but I'm never going to say "he was the best" because he wasn't. He's a really good driver, easily top tier in 96 - 98 who had the right machinery under him. You need that in modern F1. He isn't as good as schumi, but then again who is?

Doesn't mean he doesnt deserve to be in F1 though, just cos he never was the "best".

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She says brief things, her love’s a pony
My love’s subliminal

think he will be up there on the pace next year it took him half the year to settle in at sauber at the end he was on the pace of massa.

In the same car he was faster than hill and hhf he still has it just needs the team behind him.

he has not won a gp now for 8 years though thats a bloody long time dont seem it though.