Villeneuve to race Le Mans

[Robbo]

Former World Champion and ousted BMW Sauber racer Jacques Villeneuve will race at Le Mans in June, according to widespread reports on Tuesday.


The news means that French Canadian Villeneuve, 35, will have a shot at becoming the first driver in history to collect motor racing's 'big four' crowns - F1, the Indy 500, CART (now Champ Car) and the famous 24 hour endurance event.


Peugeot will shortly name Villeneuve, who is also linked with full time rides in NASCAR or DTM, alongside Marc Gene and Sebastian Bourdais and up to four others to steer the V12 diesel 908, the French publication L'Equipe said.


Peugeot has already confirmed Nicolas Minassian, Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy.

[Paddy_NL]

Cool stuff. Together with Irvine he made F1 interesting the last decade

A lot nicer anyway than the robots that drive in F1 nowardays.

[oldtimer]

The news means that French Canadian Villeneuve, 35, will have a shot at becoming the first driver in history to collect motor racing's 'big four' crowns - F1, the Indy 500, CART (now Champ Car) and the famous 24 hour endurance event.

Somebody give Mario - the man from Nazareth - another ride and let somebody with some real class claim the honours before Jacques does!

[Boorish Grobian]

Peugeot is clearly throwing a big pile of money JV's way, because he's never showed any interest in doing LM previously, and from what I've read and heard from JV money seems to be his main motivation.
Oldtimer, as much as I'd love to see Mario win LeMans, he was embarrassingly off the pace during his last outings with Panoz.  Personally I would rather see Mario stay in retirement rather than tarnish his reputation with a way off the pace return.
Fax

[jpchenet]

Peugeot is clearly throwing a big pile of money JV's way, because he's never showed any interest in doing LM previously, and from what I've read and heard from JV money seems to be his main motivation.
Oldtimer, as much as I'd love to see Mario win LeMans, he was embarrassingly off the pace during his last outings with Panoz.  Personally I would rather see Mario stay in retirement rather than tarnish his reputation with a way off the pace return.
Fax

Ever the optimist John!!!   

Unfortunatley it seems more and more these days that it's the car and technology rather than the driver that takes the flag.

Anyway John, we have more important thngs to think about, like a drunkard assualt on the souvenier t-shirt shop in two months time!! 

[Paddy_NL]

Unfortunatley it seems more and more these days that it's the car and technology rather than the driver that takes the flag.

Tell Jan Lammers that

(referring to Yoong ofcourse)

[jpchenet]

Unfortunatley it seems more and more these days that it's the car and technology rather than the driver that takes the flag.

Tell Jan Lammers that

(referring to Yoong ofcourse)

Touche!!

Unfortunatley in Jan's case,  it's the driver bringing the money sometimes as well (i.e. Yoong)

As opposed to A1 GP where it was the driver taking the money!!!!!!!! 

[Boorish Grobian]

Sorry if I sounded negative about it, its something I've been trying not to do.  But the idea of JV racing at LM doesn't make me all warm & fuzzy.  Like I said, he's never expressed any interest in racing there before and I suspect this is just all about money, unless I hear or read something to make me believe otherwise.
And Mario's simply too damn old to be competitve.
Good to hear from you again Mark!
Fax

[Werner]

Sorry if I sounded negative about it, its something I've been trying not to do.  But the idea of JV racing at LM doesn't make me all warm & fuzzy.  Like I said, he's never expressed any interest in racing there before and I suspect this is just all about money, unless I hear or read something to make me believe otherwise.
And Mario's simply too damn old to be competitve.
Good to hear from you again Mark!
Fax

Let's give JV a chance. Remember Eddie Irvine who admitted in his book that in the beginning he came to Le Mans just for the money and was actually hoping that the car would break down soon ... and he wrote that he came away in love with Le Mans and I still remember his incredible ride in 1994

Personally I would love to see JV in Le Mans, although his late F1 performances were questionable I think he still is a racer

[termietermite]

And Mario's simply too damn old to be competitve.

Fax

Yup - with you there Fax.  Retired drivers should generally stay that way - especially as the years advance!  It comes to even the average every day driver, you begin to realise that your reactions and physical condition are not improving with age!  Better to have good memories of great drivers than watch their rather sad attempts to rekindle the spirit of the past.
Villeneuve is a good move for Peugeot - although I'm not a particular fan myself.  It will be very interesting to see the spectator numbers for LM '07 - they were at a record high last year, the most noticable increase being in the home crowd who were hoping to see old Pesca push Audi off the perch. But personally, I reckon that sadly Pug are going to need a miracle, not just an ex F1 driver. Time will tell...

[oldtimer]

And Mario's simply too damn old to be competitve.
Fax

I know, I know - just wanted to stimulate some lively debate to be honest.

To me Mario epitomises the great all-round racer and is somebody for whom I have a huge amount of respect and fondness - unlike JV...

[Robbo]

And Mario's simply too damn old to be competitve.
Fax

I know, I know - just wanted to stimulate some lively debate to be honest.

To me Mario epitomises the great all-round racer and is somebody for whom I have a huge amount of respect and fondness - unlike JV...

Adding to lively debate.... Being only (!) 35 years old, my memories of dear old Mario are a couple of seasons of Indy Car with Newman Haas before our dear old Nigel went over and showed him a clean pair of heels!!!

Can't help feeling that the Andretti mafia are not as fast as they think they are, but then I guess your surname gets you a long way in motorsport!!

[monkey]

And Mario's simply too damn old to be competitve.

Fax

Yup - with you there Fax.  Retired drivers should generally stay that way - especially as the years advance!  It comes to even the average every day driver, you begin to realise that your reactions and physical condition are not improving with age!  Better to have good memories of great drivers than watch their rather sad attempts to rekindle the spirit of the past.
Villeneuve is a good move for Peugeot - although I'm not a particular fan myself.  It will be very interesting to see the spectator numbers for LM '07 - they were at a record high last year, the most noticable increase being in the home crowd who were hoping to see old Pesca push Audi off the perch. But personally, I reckon that sadly Pug are going to need a miracle, not just an ex F1 driver. Time will tell...

It will indeed be interesting. 2007 has no international Football competition to compete with and in my experience that usually seems to result in a larger than usual visiting contingent too. As for JV, I reckon he will drive into the back of someone after about 45 minutes and be back home before the race even finishes..

[Kpy]

Peugeot is clearly throwing a big pile of money JV's way, because he's never showed any interest in doing LM previously, and from what I've read and heard from JV money seems to be his main motivation.

Fax - Just to put the record straight. JV is on record as saying that he wanted to race at Le Mans once he'd retired from F1.
In 2005 he told Autosport:
"The reason for me to do Le Mans is that nobody has won all four. Three have been won, but never four. If you stop racing for a few years, then you are not on it anymore. You can still be quick, but not absolutely on it. So I'd want to do Le Mans straightaway after F1, get it over with and then I can get away from racing completely."

I'm making no predictions about Peugeot in the 24 hours this year, but Bourdais/Villeneuve/Gene doesn't seem too bad a driver line-up.

[oldtimer]

my memories of dear old Mario are a couple of seasons of Indy Car with Newman Haas before our dear old Nigel went over and showed him a clean pair of heels!!!

Can't help feeling that the Andretti mafia are not as fast as they think they are
[/quote]

Unfortunately your memories of Mario are of a period when already he was past his best.  Dig out some of the history books and see his achievements - for example a pretty eye catching GP debut.

Think you are right though about the surname... I am not convinced that latter day racing Andretti's really stood up to the old man's reputation.