Villeneuve could have champ car fall-back option

Jacques Villeneuve has been handed a Champ Cars safety net should his Formula One career come to an end this year.

The Canadian is likely to have the option of a return to the series he won in 1995 after his manager and former British American Racing boss Craig Pollock yesterday set up his own team.

Villeneuve is in the final year of a five-year deal with the BAR team that was established by Pollock.

The 1997 world champion insists he wants a competitive drive and will leave if this year’s car struggles to make an impact.

But Villeneuve could find it difficult to land a drive with one of the big three of Ferrari, McLaren and former team Williams.

“If I have another bad season this year it would be close to impossible to get a drive and I would not want to be in a team at the back,” admitted Villeneuve at the launch of his 2003 challenger on Tuesday.

“This might be the right car, maybe not this year but for the future as well.”

But if he was to stay at B.A.R then he would almost certainly have to accept a reduction of his reputed £13m (€19m)-a-year salary leaving a return to Champ Cars and a link-up with his friend and mentor an option.

Pollock yesterday launched PK Racing insisting Villeneuve was “very supportive” of the idea.

The Scots-born Pollock has promised to use the experience he gained in F1 for his crack at the CART title with his Indianapolis-based outfit.

“We have made some mistakes in the past, but we have also done some very good things,” said Pollock, who launched B.A.R in 1999 but quit as team principal after three unsuccessful seasons.

“We’re going to tap into the knowledge bank of what went right with the BAR start-up experience and use that as a type of blueprint for PK Racing, making sure that we don’t make the same mistakes that slowed the development of BAR."