13/03/2005
NEWS STORY
Sauber driver Jacques Villeneuve has hit out at the media in the wake of negative comments made about his performance in Melbourne.
The Canadian is clearly angry at some of the reports, and sensational headlines, suggesting that his relationship with the Swiss team has got off to a bad start.
"I don't really want to comment on what we can read on websites and in the press this week," said the former world champion. "Sometimes it's good to read between the lines and it can be dangerous to give answers to things like that.
"I don't want to create any problems," he continued, "all I want is to concentrate on my job with the team. You know, saying things like what we can currently read everywhere just irritates everybody and doesn't serve any purpose!"
It's unclear exactly what reports Villeneuve is referring to, however the biggest coverage this week was given to comments made by team boss Peter Sauber to the on-line magazine of team sponsor, Credit Suisse.
With regards what happened at the start of the race, when he lost several positions, Villeneuve said: "We did not have a clue on how the tyres were going to react simply because we did not test. We thought of getting heavy degradation on the rears during the race so we set the car up to compensate this with lots of understeer - so very little grip on the front. Therefore, our set-up, plus cold tyres on the first lap was just like driving on ice. I turned the wheel and the car kept going straight. It took half a lap and it got better."
Asked about his lack of pace, which Peter Sauber cannot explain, and which the Swiss team boss admitted was "actually bigger than it seems", Villeneuve said: "Losing places at the start was not so important, I knew we weren't very quick anyway. The worst came in the second half of the race: until my first pitstop my lap times were comparable with Felipe's with the same amount of fuel in the car. But after each pitstop, it was just getting worse. I had soft tyres and Felipe was on hard because we just wanted to compare the two. We now know better but I was not happy at the end of the race."