According to reports in the Canadian media, former World Champion Jacques Villeneuve could test for his former team, WilliamsF1, later in the year.

For some time there have been rumours linking the Canadian with the Grove outfit, with which he won the 1997 World Championship.

With Juan Pablo Montoya heading to McLaren and Ralf Schumacher looking more and more likely to head to Toyota, the Grove outfit needs two drivers. Although there will be a number of drivers on the market at the end of the season, team boss Frank Williams has confused the issue by saying that he's looking for a "proven winner", which of course narrows the choice down considerably.

In recent weeks the rumour mill has been in overdrive with various sections of the media claiming that Villeneuve was on the verge of attending all manner of secret tests. Now however Frank Williams is being quoted directly.

"We have a list of potential drivers and Jacques is on the list," he is alleged to have told La Presse.

"There has been no offer and no negotiations," he admitted. "We are not ready for that. It's a long procedure and we are in no hurry. We will speed things up in August. We will have to look at the drivers on our list, decide which we want to test, and after that we will make our decision," added the Briton.

"It's a possibility that Jacques will test," he continued "and if we proceed with Jacques," it will happen in August or September, something like that."

Williams also admitted that in addition to a meeting with Villeneuve, in London, there had also been a number of telephone dialogues.

"He's as aggressive as ever," he said. "He was very fired up, very determined to get back on the track. It was an interesting meeting."