Jacques Villeneuve to drive in Brazil V8 Stock Car at The Million Race!

[Johnny]

Villeneuve will compete in a round of the Copa Caixa series, Round 7 called The Million BMC race at Interlagos in São Paulo on August 7. The organisers will offer a one million reals prize for the winner (approx. $650,000).

"Everyone knows I like the race other kinds of race cars, and of course an invitation like this, running in Brazil and also in the running for good prize money, is appealing with any driver,” Villeneuve told the organizers.

“I am happy to have worked our negotiations and I am eager to know the category, because I know that is very strong in Brazil,” the former F1 World Champion said.

"I will run in Interlagos, a track that I know my days of Formula 1 and I can only say I am very happy to be back to compete there," he added

Villeneuve’s car will be sponsored by Shell V-Power.

Check out his car layout:

http://stockcar.globo.com/index.php...power-e-o-numero-27-na-corrida-do-milhao-bmc/

 

[Ardius]

Is there a series that Jacques Villenueve hasn't competed in?
I hope I can catch some stream or some highlights of this somewhere, Jacques is always entertaining to watch no matter what car he is in. The last I saw of him (Andros Trophy) he was still mixing it at the front when he'd never really done ice-racing before!
Pretty much every time I see Jacques racing in these various series, he's always somewhere near the front and he is always in the middle of the action. I look forward to the same here. 👍

 

[Johnny]

Jacques Villeneuve arrived in São Paulo today and will probably test the car for the first time tomorrow.

For those of you that don't know the Brazil V8 Stock Car championship, here's a cool video:

 

[Mac K]

Don't know much about Jacques, how good us he compared to his dad? That man was/is my idol (note my avatar)

 

[Ardius]

Don't know much about Jacques, how good us he compared to his dad? That man was/is my idol (note my avatar)

Championships 1 (1997)
Wins 11
Podiums 23
Career points 235
Pole positions 13
Fastest laps 9

Thats a start anyway. How good is Jacques Villenueve? On pure, sheer driving talent he is as good as his father in my opinion.

The "problem" with Jacques is that he isn't too bright sometimes and he is terribly managed. Ever since leaving Williams in 1998, he ruined his career. Nowadays he is constantly taking odd-job race seats in championships all over the world, but his main focus of late has been trying to get a full-time NASCAR seat.

But this is not entirely a reflection of his driving ability, but just what happens when a driver is mis-managed. This is why you pay lots of money for a manager - to make sure you don't make dumb decisions!

At the peak of Jacques career - he was easily a match for Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen. While Jacques "made a meal" of his 1997 championship, he was very impressive in 1996 and then the odd race in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000.

Rather than rambling I'll try and just condense into some points;
Jacques strengths:
-Exciting driver, always puts his foot down with no fear (he refused to take Eau Rouge anything other than flat out, which led to crashing there twice in 1998 and 1999).
-Was never intimidated by any driver and would go wheel to wheel with anyone.
-Was/is extremely fast if not the fastest driver on his day.
-Has great technical feedback and provides very good setups.
-He always pushed even in uncompetitive cars - he used to qualify some terrible BAR machines near the front rows of the grid!

Jacques weaknesses:
-Inconsistent over a season, he regularly has bad races. And when Jacques has a bad day, its a really slow one! Its amazing how much pace he can lose in the wrong conditions.
-Lacks leadership skills in a team, he couldn't build a team around him at BAR, he works best when everything is sorted for him.
-Terrible management, as we can clearly see with his career moves.
-Isn't the brightest racing driver ever.

 

[Mac K]

Guess that answered my question thanks. Imagine if Gilles was still alive, I'm sure Jaques career would have been much better as well as his management. To date though, Jaques is the only Canadian to win an F1 championship and the Indy 500 as well.