By Phil Huff
June 14 2005

Peter Sauber has taken steps to calm down the well publicised war of words between the Sauber Petronas team boss and driver Jacques Villeneuve. The disagreements flared up in spectacular style in the build up to the Canadian Grand Prix, with Villeneuve accusing the Swiss squad of ignoring his experience and hoping the team is taken over by BMW. This followed comments from Peter Sauber, declaring the Canadian driver as too slow. "He goes too slow and it's difficult to find the cause," said Peter Sauber, "but it represents a problem which we must solve internally."

Following these comments in the media, Villeneuve went off to qualify an impressive eighth for the Canadian Grand Prix, temporarily silencing many of his critics.

Peter Sauber is keen to clear the air, and bring any disputes back behind closed doors. "I don't like playing a game of words," says Peter. "What people say and what is written are two different things. When I speak to Jacques, things are calm and constructive."

The Swiss boss concedes that there are performance issues on both sides of the team. "He knows that he must be quicker," he says, "and we know that we have to give him a quicker car.

"His performance in qualifying was a nice surprise. His race unfortunately was soon over with damage to the front wing."