Yes I realise that, my 'inexplicably' is because I want informed balanced opinion from the punditry, not a gobby little manchild!
The 2024 Formula One Season
- Thread starter cutting42
- Start date
kasperhauser
pfm Member
Sorry, I must have confused him with the former F1world champion. The guy you describe does sound awful.
I have met him, have you?
kasperhauser
pfm Member
Nope.
You don’t like him, that’s abundantly clear. It happens. However, why Sky would have him on seems entirely explicable.
Bananahead
pfm Member
Well done George
tuga
Legal Alien
Why mix his driving/racing ability with his discourse?
His 'résumé' @ the F1 website
Jacques Villeneuve had a Formula One career in reverse. He nearly won the driving title in his debut year, did so in his second season, then went steadily downhill and eventually dropped right out of the sport.
(...)
He swept through the international ranks - saloon cars in Italy, F3 in Europe and Japan, FAtlantic and IndyCars in North America. In 1995, aged 24, he became the youngest winner of both the famed Indianapolis 500 race and the IndyCar championship. In 1996 Williams brought him to Formula One racing, where he started from pole at the first race of the season, in Australia, led (until slowed by an oil leak) and finished second to his veteran Williams team mate Damon Hill, with whom he engaged in a see-saw struggle for supremacy for the rest of the year. In the end the championship went to Hill, who won five races to Villeneuve's four, but the feisty French Canadian's electrifying debut was the talk of the racing world.
In 1997 Villeneuve fulfilled his fast and furious promise, winning seven races and taking the driving title in spectacular fashion from Michael Schumacher in a notorious championship showdown at Jerez in Spain. Schumacher's infamous failure to ram his rival off the road left the Ferrari superstar in disgrace and Villeneuve on the top of the world. It was a wonderfully dramatic story - the brave son of a racing legend who fended off a villain's worst efforts to become World Champion - that confirmed Villeneuve's place in Formula One history and folklore.
tuga
Legal Alien
He dropped off qualifying on the first round...whilst his team mate is joint pole-sitter.
Because his F1 ability ain't that great despite his protestations. Don't get me wrong, he's a very good driver... you can't win an F1 championship otherwise, but he's not as great as he thinks he is. Your last paragraph there is hilarious. Put it this way would Villeneuve have won that championship in the Ferrari? Would he have been in contention for the championship in the last race, as Schumacher was, if he were in the Ferrari? If their positions had been reversed then Schumacher would in all likelihood have wrapped up the championship with 5 races to go so good was that car especially early in the season. I remember the wet races of 1997, Schumacher sublime, Villeneuve looking like an amateur. The difference between the truly great and the very good I guess.
Anyway I doubt we'll ever agree or have our minds changed by to and fro on an Internet forum so I'll leave the subject alone now.
tuga
Legal Alien
If I were a richman... La, la, la.
Hard to say since it didn't happen?
It also works if you replace Schumacher with Senna and Villeneuve with Prost. The difference between the truly great and the very good?
Yep, so who could Red Bull put in that car who would play number 2 to Max happily and be consistently better than Perez? At the end of the day he's another Barrichello. When the car is great he'll be there with Max, when it's not Max can find the skill to still put it there... either Max is making the difference or Perez is terrible and any other driver would be better... Gasly, Albon, Kvyat, Ricciardo have all been in that sister Red Bull and with the possible exception of Ricciardo the result has been the same.
So it comes down to my earlier scenarios... Max is just that much better than them all or they are all just really bad drivers and any of the others on the grid would be a step up.... hmmm! Statistics and evidence do not support the latter!
PS I know a lot of people wanted Sainz in the Red Bull, but has anyone considered that Sainz may not want to accept a number 2 role... it's career ending if you have any aspirations to be WC as it sends the wrong message to every team principal!
tuga
Legal Alien
Some kid from F2?
It really doesn't... Senna and Prost were very different drivers but equally as great in my view. Senna had the innate skill and flamboyance... Prost had the innate skill but a little less than Senna, but he made up for the gap in his intelligent approach to racing... he always tried to win by going just fast enough. He was of course also massively traumatised by the Didier Pironi incident at Hockenheim in 1982 (covered extensively in his autobiography which is a great read btw) which left him with a fear of very wet races... yet he still won four championships. A vastly underrated great of the sport by some IMO.
SteveS1
I heard that, pardon?
This. I doubt he gave that a second glance.
