Originally posted by GilesGuthrie
1. Villeneuve's prime was definitely the time he was interested in wringing the neck of the car. Therefore, as Mike says, JV's prime ended with Williams' loss of the Works Renault engines.
2. He definitely has talent, as his domination of British F3 in 2001 showed. However, he found it tought to adjust to F1 and so a year of testing was right for him. It's odd then that it's hard to find any examples of him actually doing any testing, apart from a couple of weeks ago at one of the Spanish tracks. He could be quite good, but I rather sense that the team will gravitate around Button even more next year.
The question of whether someone "deserves" their place in F1 is always a thorny one. Mike is being harsh on Wilson & Firman, because whilst they (Firman especially) have proven themselves to be pretty much completely unable to justify their place, it was definitely clear that they did both at least deserve a shot at F1 glory.
Does Sato deserve another go? Yeah, I think so. Given that Fisichella is struggling to get the Jordan onto the 6th row, and the fact that Jordan have suffered something like 15 mechanical retirements this year, it's difficult to really judge someone's ability based on points scored in a year at Jordan. I've seen Ralph Firman twice this year though, and he was verging on the dangerous both times.
remember Barbazza? 
