Villeneuve offers little hope

Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve gave his fans little reason to be optimistic when he arrived on home ground in Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix, admitting his Sauber car is “just slow”.

Villeneuve has suffered a difficult return to Formula One after nearly a whole season away in 2004, with his performances for Sauber attracting widespread criticism.

The Canadian has struggled to adapt to the car – barring an impressive fourth place in San Marino – and did his cause no help by taking out team-mate Felipe Massa in Monaco.

Villeneuve arrives back on home turf ahead of Massa in the championship but under immense pressure to turn around his performances. However, he has little hope of a sudden improvement for Sauber.

Asked whether recent testing had given him hope for the future, Villeneuve replied simply: “Not really, no. The car was working fine but once again not fast enough.”

He added: “We just need to go faster now to get into the top 10. There’s nothing else we can do. We had a good step in Imola and we got it right, the other track where we were competitive was Monaco and that is it.

“The car is not difficult to drive but on the lap time it’s just not fast enough. There is always room to improve and learn and that happens with work. Right now there is not much we can do with the car, we are where we are and that’s about it.

“Definitely we are all disappointed with how competitive we are. The new car has never been fast and nobody seems to know why.

“It is just slow. There is very little we can do, we don’t have the budget just to redesign stuff. We are stuck with what we have and that’s how it will be until the end of the season.”

Villeneuve has a contract with Sauber until the end of next season but has seen his future at the team in doubt since the third round in Bahrain.

The 1997 world champion brushes off the speculation and criticism, insisting he has no regrets about returning to the cockpit.

“It’s always been the case, it’s not a surprise,” he added. “It was the case last year. Rumours are part of everyday racing. There has always been a lot of rumours. I have no idea where it comes from but I guess it’s easy to make rumours.

“I have been racing long enough to take criticism for what it is. If it is fair then you accept it, if it’s not fair then it goes in one ear and out the other one. It’s too easy to have regrets. I much prefer to be racing than watching it on TV.”