By pitpass.com (29/06/2003)
June 29 2003

"Today was a bad day," admitted Jacques Villeneuve following yesterday's qualifying session which saw him take seventeenth spot on the grid, ahead of the two Minardis and Nick Heidfeld, who failed to post a time. "It's never a good thing to go out first for qualifying," he added, "but on top of that I had a bad lap. The car was sliding and I braked too late into turn one, locked the front wheels and lost a good half-second as a result. "We'll be starting well behind where we normally should be and that will hurt us for sure."

Suddenly it's looking very, very bleak for the 1997 World Champion, his current contract with BAR runs out at the end of the season and even if team boss David Richards wants him to stay on, it will be at a vastly reduced wage.

The list of alternative drives grows shorter by the day and in all honesty there are serious concerns as to whether the French-Canadian will be in F1 next season.

Jacques recently opened up to the press and revealed that the war of words with Jenson Button prior to the start of the season was effectively his way of hitting back at the team which, to his mind, was calling him a w***er by lauding the English youngster so much and so publicly.

Button however has kept his head down, out-qualifying the Canadian 5-3 and grabbing 8 points to the former World Champion's 3.

That said, Villeneuve has had some appalling luck this season, a fact that is not lost on him.

His manager Craig Pollock insists that he is confident that Jacques will be in F1 in 2004 and is even tipping a return to form for the former CART Champion. However there are reports in the Canadian press that Villeneuve is not entirely happy with Pollock at present and that a slight rift is beginning to appear between the two.

It's understood the Canadian is concerned that Pollock is spending too much time on his own CART commitments and as a result is not concentrating on Jacques' career, while the BAR star is also said to be unhappy at Pollock's decision to dump his good friend Patrick Lemarie.

Of course things have changed for Jacques. Under the old regime at BAR everything was built around him, with his friend (and manager) in charge negotiating great deals, and his skiing buddy employed as test driver. Now, with David Richards at the helm, the balance has shifted, and indeed Button appears to be the apple of the team principal's eye.

There's no doubt that Villeneuve still has the ability and the talent, what he needs now is a little luck in order that he can actually get to prove once and for all what he is capable of. However at this point in time the former champ must be seriously considering whether he has a future in F1 beyond the end of this season.

This article was written by pitpass.com and is used with permission.