Monza, Italy, Aug.
31, 2000
Jacques Villeneuve agreed to talk with Speedvision's Bob Varsha. Here
is the complete transcript of that interview, portions of which will be
aired on Speedvision News.
Bob Varsha:
Jacques, in your view, how much does F1 need to be successful in America?
Jacques Villeneuve: It's going to be very difficult for Formula One to be successful
in America. America has got its own racing series and with a bunch of races
in America with American drivers and American cars and so on. So it will be
very, very difficult for F1 to be big in America. We'll have only one race with
no American drivers. With not much American, it will be very, very difficult.
Bob: Would you agree it's important that Formula 1 be
successful in America to be considered a true world championship?
Jacques: I'm not sure, because America has always separated itself from the
rest of the world in sports. All the sports that are big in the States are American
sports that hardly exist anywhere else; and they are called world championships,
and so on, and they mostly happen in the States. All the other sports happen
in the rest of the world, so it's never been really mixed.
Bob: Eddie Irvine has said that the FIA has abdicated
its safety mission by allowing Formula 1 cars to race at Indianapolis, particularly
through Turn 1 with the concrete walls to the outside.
Jacques: I can't understand Eddie's point, because he hasn't seen the track,
and I'm sure that he imagines that we're going to be very fast through Turn
1. But we're actually going to be very slow compared to the speed at which you
could go through that turn – compared to the speed that Indy cars go through
that corner, we're going to be very, very slow. So it's not going to be a problem
at all. If anyone crashes there, it's only because a tire blows or because they
have a problem with the car. But even then, there shouldn't be any reason that
it should happen.
Bob: You were able to move so smoothly from the CART series
up into Formula 1 – and even win a World Championship – but other drivers, Alex
Zanardi among them, did not have that kind of success. How do you suppose that
is?
Jacques: I guess Zanardi had already been in F1 before being in Indy Car. He
arrived in Indy Car already with a lot of experience. I guess he had maxed out
his experience before coming back to F1. When I moved to Indy Car, I was just
out of Atlantics and I didn't have a big package behind me. When I got in F1,
I still had a lot to learn. So maybe that had an influence. I don't know. But
the other thing is, I got into Williams also when it was a winning team. And
when he got into Williams it wasn't a winning team anymore, so maybe the pressure
was a lot different.
Bob: Your career, as it developed from the Atlantics to
the Champ Cars to Formula 1 – as the equipment got better, you seemed to get
faster. What's your theory about how talent rises to the top in racing?
Jacques: It's important to be able to improve yourself the whole time. Whatever
you do, you always have to be able to judge and understand what's happening,
so you can get better at it. You never stop that. The day you stop improving
and you start to get worse, you're over the edge, then maybe you should start
thinking about stopping.
Bob: Do you have any personal memories of the U.S. Grand
Prix at any of its previous locations?
Jacques: No, I was very small, when my dad was racing. And don't have any memories
of that.
Bob: You are among a group of five men – Andretti, Fittipaldi,
Clark and Graham Hill – who have won both the Formula 1 World Championship and
the Indianapolis 500. Do those sorts of statistics have special meaning for
you?
Jacques: Sometimes when you go out with friends or with a few people and you
mention stuff like that, it's great to have achieved something that only a few
have achieved. But I think that will be more important the day that I retire.
That's when you tell your kid and your grandchildren that – you know, you show
them a piece of paper with what you've accomplished. That's always nice, once
you retire.
Bob: What would it mean to you to go back to Indy and
win the Grand Prix there?
Jacques: Oh that'd be great. It would definitely be great. It's not expected
this year [chuckles]. We're not up there in the battle for wins unless something
happens to the McLarens and the Ferraris. But winning the Indy 500 was a very
special moment. It's the biggest race in the world, and – to win it – is impossible
to explain what it means. I guess it's like winning an Olympic event. To go
back there and get a good result would be very nice.
Bob: Based on what you know of the track right now, what
do you anticipate would be the big challenge for being competitive there?
Jacques: There's a long straight line and also a lot of corners, and it's probably
one of the only tracks where you can choose in between running a lot of downforce
or very low wing settings and still be quick and both versions can be fast.
Normally, tracks are pretty definite on if you have to run a lot of downforce
or very little. And that's one that's not clear-cut. So, to make the right decision
there is gonna be big.
Bob: At Indianapolis in '94, you crashed, came back and
were rookie of the year the year before winning the race. You've crashed heavily
in a Formula 1 car, particularly at Spa last year – you called it one of the
best crashes of your career – but came back to be competitive there. Where do
you find the confidence and the courage to bounce back from situations like
that and go again?
Jacques: Partially because I've never gotten hurt yet. So I'm sure that helps.
And because that's part of being a race driver. Unless you think like that,
you shouldn't be racing, because it is dangerous. You have to be able to push
yourself to the extreme limit; and when you think you reach a limit, then you
should try and look for a new limit. Unless you're hungry to do that, then you
shouldn't be racing.
Bob: How important is the crowd? We expect, perhaps, the
biggest crowd in Formula 1 history at Indianapolis. How much is the crowd a
factor in a driver's performance?
Jacques: It's not really, because you don't see the crowd. You're in the motorhome.
You're discussing with the engineers. Then you jump in the car, and you're focussed
on the racetrack. You see the crowd before the start and after the race – mostly
if you win and you're on the podium – then that's when you can see and feel
the crowd. But if you have a bad weekend, you're out of there before anything
happens anyway. But then it's very difficult for me to say, because every race
we go to, the crowd is just packed. So if we went to a race where there wasn't
any crowd, then maybe that's when we'd notice how important it is. But when
it's there every time – it's been there for five years, race after race – then
you don't really think about it.
But the memory I have from Indianapolis is special with the crowd, because there
was probably half a million people sitting around there. And you do notice –
mostly when they hold the yellow flags – that's when you have time to look around,
and you could see a lot, a lot of people and that was quite amazing. That's
not something we've had in F1, and the crowd for the F1 at Indy is going to
be less than for the Indy 500. But I think that it's still going to be very
special.
Bob: Is Indy the best place Formula 1 could return to
the United States after nine years?
Jacques: Probably. With Indy as the center of motor racing – at least open wheel
racing – in North America. If F1 wants to get American fast, then yes. There's
other places – if all you wanted was a big crowd somewhere in the States – then
other places would be good like Vegas, because there's an international crowd
there anyway independent of the time. All year round, it's full of people from
all around the world. So that would be a good place to get a crowd of whomever.
But to get a big American crowd, Indy is definitely the best place, because
it's probably the only place in North America where you have race fans for whatever
racing it is.
Bob: You have re-signed with British American Racing.
You'll be there for another three years. You obviously have confidence in the
future of the team. Where does that confidence spring from?
Jacques: That's a very good question. After '99, it's difficult for people to
understand why I would want to stay with the team, because last year we got
zero points, and it was very, very, very difficult. But there's been a little
progress this year. We're still not to where we were wanting to be. But there's
been a lot of progress. Everybody is working hard, and it's looking positive.
We're on the right slope, and I've invested so much energy in this team in trying
to get the results that – now that it's getting better – I would be really angry
if someone else had started winning with this team.