Up and away for Villeneuve

Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve has declared himself proud of his comeback season, despite coming in for regular criticism.

The Canadian completed a full season for the first time since 2002 after choosing to move to Sauber following a brief stay at Renault at the end of 2004.

Villeneuve scored just two points fewer than Ferrari-bound team-mate Felipe Massa last season and improved his performances notably after a difficult start.

However, his performances were repeatedly criticised and Sauber’s new owners BMW were believed to be looking at ways of ending his two-year contract early.

This week they confirmed Villeneuve will stay on next season and the 34-year-old is looking forward to a major improvement, pointing to his progress this year as a reason for optimism.

He told his personal website, www.jv-world.com: “It’s important to be realistic and to consider from where we start.

“Sauber finished in eighth place in the constructors’ championship 2005, so there’s a long way to go. I am sure we can do considerably better, but it will take time. The important thing is to see an upwards trend.

“In terms of performances, 2005 was quite hard. The car was difficult to drive in the beginning, and we did an insufficient amount of testing before the season started. On this particular point, I am extremely happy with the job we’ve done this year.

“Of course, things like this are not very visible as we were fighting for positions and not for podiums but it is quite satisfying to have achieved such a strong job.

“I expect that, with the increased budget that BMW can offer, we can improve steadily, because Sauber is a very efficient team already. I’m really looking forward to working with the team in 2006, and really feel it is going to be a fantastic year.”