Formula One news

Villeneuve still keen to return

Jacques Villeneuve has again expressed his hope to return to Formula One. With three new teams entering the sport to boost the grid to 26 cars in 2010, the French-Canadian will be presented with more chances to enter than in recent years. The 1997 World Champion was last seen in F1 driving for BMW in 2006.

Having been ousted from the German team three years ago and replaced by Robert Kubica, Villeneuve has again spoken of his comeback chances. "I'm a racing driver and I always will be," he said to Autosprint. "That's why I'm looking about for F1; driving is the only thing that interests me and all the mess that's happened helps me - with the test ban, we experienced drivers are handy. I can't say what will happen, but I'm giving it a go."

After labelling F1 as 'boring', Villeneuve is pleased with the 2009 rule changes

Any return by Jacques would be a second one, however, as his first reappearance came with Renault in 2004 after leaving B.A.R at the end of the previous season. "In my opinion, today's cars are better to watch and they will be even more so next year," he continued of this year's latest changes such as the return of slick tyres and reduced aerodynamic aids. "They will be more fun driving them, especially with the fuel-stop ban - you can see them sliding more, without electronic aids, and that way the show is better."

Having stressed his desire for a ban on fuel stops and the return of slick tyres a decade ago, Villeneuve is pleased to see that Formula One is being brought back to the public. "When I left, F1 wasn't fun anymore," he continued. "Or rather, driving still was but the atmosphere outside was bad; you'd spend your half hour with your race engineer, after which the computer would prepare your setup and they'd tell you 'shut up and drive'. I'm the type of person that always speaks out but towards the end everything became very difficult.

"That kind of atmosphere looks boring when viewed from the outside. No-one speaks out - in my opinion, that's also what loses fans. People want to see gladiators - instead they all sound like they love each other. In reality, everyone wants to beat everyone else."

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