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.

JaKo'S wEb