Laura23 wrote:
Londinium wrote:
infi24r wrote:
There was a period during the 90's that whoever drove for Williams was the WDC. Jaques was there during this time.
Its kind of like the Newey cars of today.
That '97 Williams car wasn't the all conquering car that previous Williams cars had been, it was still the best car but wasn't streets ahead of others. Look at what Frentzen did with it and look at how close MSC was to JV on occasions in straight out races. Let us remember this was a JV who had finished 2nd in his debut season, nearly won his first race in F1 etc, he had as impressive a rookie season as Hamilton, not that anyone remembers these days. This wasn't the fading Villeneuve of the mid 2000s.
Simple fact was that from '96-'01 Villeneuve was one of the best drivers on the grid, top 3/4. In his first three BAR seasons he ragged those awful cars around the place like a madman, even in the hideous '98 Williams car he was sticking it in grid places it didn't belong. He was a victim of bad management and chasing the money, like Ralf Schumacher but much more talented.
Saying this though he wasn't anywhere near the 2005 McLaren drive, he was well past his best and wasn't even on McLaren's radar. His last chance was when Renault was coming back into F1 and they were interested in him leading the team. Villeneuve turned them down for staying at BAR and thus went his chance at a 2nd and 3rd title.
In Qualifying the Williams was often well over half a second faster than the rest of the field. It's drivers just didn't deliver enough on race day. It was the dominant car that was never dominant. It should have obliterated the 97 field, but a woeful JV/HHF combo and an on fire Schumacher in a half decent Ferrari put paid to that. JV had two excellent years in F1,
96 and 2000. The rest were pretty forgettable. He was never a top 3/4 driver though, not when the Mika's, the Schumacher's, the Montoya's and Raikkonen's were performing.
Not so sure about that. 1996 was a great season, but I think 97 was solid, 98 he did well in a Williams that was ho hum, 1999 and 2000 were Jacques at his best IMO.
I think people remember his qualifying sessions at Imola, Spain, and I want to say Nurburging in 1999. The car showed some decent pace and JV rung everything out of it, but the car always let him down. He was running 3rd and the car gave up. Imola he qualified 5th place in that BAR chassis. That was so damn impressive because the packaging of the car was terrible, handling horrid, and an underpowered engine that was outdated.
After 2002 I want to say he gave up. He always tried to push machinery and he did well, but at the same token it was his downfall because he would not have to experience it if he stayed at Williams. You cannot take away the man did not try in anything he drove. He gave more effort than anyone else I have seen in my brief life.
Just watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7a9yRetyp0You cannot tell me and I mean anyone here that you would be tiddled off about pushing so damn hard and the engine giving up? Man, I bet that had to be irritating. We give the man a lot of fairy cakes, but he tried to give his all. It was just not enough in the end though.