13/07/2018
NEWS STORY
Ever controversial, 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, has claimed that his former team, Williams, is dead.
The Canadian, now a regular pundit with Sky Italia, made his F1 debut with Williams in 1996, winning on only his fourth outing with the team and finishing runner-up to teammate Damon Hill in the championship.
The following season he won the title in one of the most controversial finales of modern times, spending one more year with Williams before joining the ill-fated British American Racing project.
Waking out of BMW Sauber and F1, just over half-way through the 2006 season, over the years that followed he raced almost anything that moved including NASCAR, Le Mans, Speedcar, GT and even Formula E.
In the wake of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone - the circuit that saw the team score its first Grand Prix win in 1979 - where both the Grove outfit's cars started from the pitlane following the post-qualifying discovery of a DRS-related phenomenon affecting the rear wings, Villeneuve was asked if he saw his old team improving anytime soon.
"No," he told Motorsport.com. "The team is dead.
"There is no management," he added. "There was a choice back then, you either put the heiress or the heir in charge," he continued. "And they put Claire instead of Jonathan. Big mistake, obviously, just look where the team is at now.
"You have to admit that you're screwed," insisted the Canadian. "I don't know how it can recover. I just don't see it. If you have two drivers without experience, that won't help. Not in a team like this."