Kadangi man jau tikrai nusibodo "kariauti" su JV nemegejais, prisigalvojanciais paciu ivairiausiu butu ar nebutu argumentu, ar besiremianciais britu spaudos isvedziojimais, nutariau, jums leidus, nu'copy-paste'int viena straipsniuka, kuri siandien radau (aisku, gaila, kad tik siandien). Jame labai logiskai, pagrindziant pavyzdziais, apzvelgiami aspektai, del kuriu buvo daugiausiai diskutuota, pagrinde JB "nekentimas" ir BAR "boksu trileris" Australijos GP metu. Beje, kas maloniai nustebino, kad nemazai siame straipsnyje esanciu argumentu ir as pats esu naudojes ne vieno ginco su sio puslapio lankytojais metu, ir isties smagu, jog pasaulio platybese yra bendraminciu :) Tas, manau, irgi parodo, jog ivertinus pakankamai daug ivairiapusiskos informacijos, prieinama daugmaz vienos isvados. Zinoma, neteigiu, jog "tiesa yra tik viena", kiekvienas turi teise i nuomone, lygiai kaip ir sio straipsnio autorius tiesiosg isdeste savaja. Taciau, kaip jau minejau, itin argumentuotai ir logiskai. Tad, kam anglu kalba suprantamesne uz kinieciu, linkiu gero skaitymo.
[b]In Defence Of Jacques[/b]
11/03/03
Self-confessed Villeneuve expert and publisher of the BARF1fans.com website, Pam Griffin, maintains there's no way that Jacques Villeneuve would have deliberately messed up Jenson Button's race.
The BAR team were thown into confusion when Villeneuve failed to show up for his pit-stop at the Aussie GP and then came in on the same lap as his team-mate Jenson Button.
“Suspicions rage about that pitstop that cost Button certain points” said The Times, and it wasn’t alone. Since both BARs came in at the same time, journalists and fans alike have been wondering if Jacques came in on purpose to deliberately ruin Jenson Button’s race.
BAR's history of radio problems is impressive. They were forced to make extra pitstops at the 2000 Canadian GP because they couldn’t hear which tyres the drivers were asking for and in the following year’s Brazilian Grand Prix Olivier Panis lost a podium place because he and Jacques pitted at the same time, although on that occasion Jacques was slightly further ahead on the track, albeit a lap down. Olivier was naturally upset to miss out, but accepted that it had been an accident and that it wasn’t done on purpose.
Someone who hasn’t had to cope with pitstop problems like Sunday’s is Heinz Harald Frentzen. Although “a Williams insider” apparently said that JV had deliberately ruined HH’s race a few times while they were team mates I can’t remember a single instance where the two Williamses pitted at the same time. The only incident I can remember along those lines was when Frentzen pitted on Jacques’s lap at the very wet 1998 Belgian GP and Jacques, who had to do another lap on slicks, aquaplaned off track.
The main reason for the suspicions seems to be the rivalry between the two drivers and reports that Jacques was told to move over to let Jenson through and apparently replied “no ****ing way”.
I’ll get to the radio bit in a minute, but we’ll start with the rivalry.
There has been no love lost between the two BAR drivers and for both, 2003 is a season in which they have to get good results. Jacques has made it clear that he wants Jenson to prove himself on the track this year, but he has never said that he thinks Jenson is a bad driver, just that he needs to earn his respect.
Everyone knows Jacques plays mind games on his team-mates if he doesn’t respect them or is trying to psyche them out. He would regularly throw Ricardo Zonta’s meals in the bin and he and Michael Schumacher would talk behind Damon Hill’s back during press conferences in 1996.
But what Jacques doesn’t do, and has never done, is to cheat on the track. He may be one of the toughest racers on the track but he will always race fair.
In 1997 before the Jerez incident the Canadian said: “I would have nothing to gain by being involved in any accidents. If I was considering anything like that, it would have been in Japan when I had a nine-point lead. But I did not think of it. If you do something like that, you have to be a*** to live with it and I could not do something
unsporting and live with it.”
The radio transmissions between the Jacques’s car and the pits also tend to exonerate the former World Champ from of any foul play.
Half way around the lap before both cars pitted someone, presumably Jock Clear, Jacques’s race engineer, comes on the radio telling Jacques
to come in.
JC: “Box, box, box.”
JV: “(Gar***)”
JC: “10-4, 10-4, 10-4, box, box, box.”
It’s that gar*** part that some people have heard as Jacques swearing, and it does sound a bit like that, but taken in context with Jock’s reply it makes no sense. If Jacques had refused to pit Jock wouldn’t have acknowledged with “10-4” before telling him to pit again.
It’s much more likely that Jacques’s reply was something like, “You want me to come in?” as then Jock is confirming yes, please come in.
However, Jacques doesn’t acknowledge Jock’s reply and it is repeated as Jacques passes the pitlane entrance at the end of that lap.
Jock then repeats the call again around the next lap and then tells Jacques "Let Jenson ahead, let Jenson ahead, let Jenson ahead,” as they both dive into the pitlane. The problem with telling Jacques to move over is that once the cars cross the line that marks the start of the pitlane overtaking is forbidden, so even presuming Jacques had heard – and he makes no reply to the order – it would have been very difficult for him to move over in such a short space of time.
One final point for those who are still suspicious of Jacques’ motives – Jenson wasn’t the only one to lose points on Sunday. Button may have been running fifth at the time, but Jacques had been running fourth – it’s not like he was a lap down and deliberately holding up a faster car.
It’s a pity this happened in what was otherwise a very good weekend for BAR.
Pam Griffin