STRIKES
THREE
STRIKES Did former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve misjudge the ferocity of Formula E? WORDS : Noor Amylia Hilda PHOTOGRAPHY : Shivraj Gohil
28 / March 16
current-e.com / 29
FEATURES / THree Stikes
O
h, Jacques. It’s not been a good winter for the 44-year-old racer, who has left the Venturi Formula E team just three races into the 2015-16 season. What went wrong?
30 / March 16
“I would say I’m more competitive today but more thoughtful as well and that’s what comes with experience,” the man himself told me recently, with a poignancy that has been emphasised with the weight of recent events. “You go through your career and you make mistakes – and you accept the mistakes and learn from them. I’ve always tried to put the blame on my shoulders even when it wasn’t my fault, just to find a way to not get into that situation again. So through the years, as long as you’re not afraid, as long as you’re still willing to take the risks and make sacrifices, then you’ll just get better and better.” I first met Villeneuve on a warm afternoon in a hotel lobby, where he was on F1 duties as a pundit for French and Italian TV networks. The first Formula E race of the 2015-16 season was imminent – and, with it, Villeneuve’s debut in the new sport. He sat across me, nonchalant, clad in a polo shirt, shorts and flip flops, slightly jet lagged and (he said) in desperate need of an espresso. This is the driver who won the F1 championship in 1997, adding to 1995 CART series and Indy 500 conquests. He racked up 11 wins and 23 podium finishes in his decade in F1, with stints at Williams and BMW. Since then, he’s dipped his toe into just about every other series with wheels, including Nascar, Rallycross, V8 Supercars and even Andros Trophy ice racing. (He also came tantalisingly close to winning Le Mans in 2008, scoring second place with Peugeot.) Yet his Formula E story will now be little more than a footnote in an impressive career – and a short one at that. “I got a call when I was in Hungary saying I needed to come and test on Tuesday,” he told me, speaking shortly before a troubled preseason testing period at Donington Park in the UK began a disastrous electric racing campaign. His wiry hair was wild but greying, underlining the fact that he is virtually twice the age of others on the grid. “I was supposed to go to Canada for business so I cancelled everything, because driving is driving and you cannot beat that.” A wide grin followed. Coffee duly arrived. In between sips, Villeneuve described the secret test he did for the Monacobased Venturi team at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. “So I was sitting in Sarrazin’s seat because I didn’t even have time to make my own and I had a friend’s race suit on because I forgot to bring mine and he’s 10kg lighter than me so it was a little bit tight,” he chuckled. “We did 30 laps and it went well. It’s just natural, it’s like riding a bicycle.”
current-e.com / 31
That’s what keeps me young and fit:
the racing
32 / March 16
current-e.com / 33
FEATURES / THree Stikes
Villeneuve’s idea of riding a bicycle may have since changed. The feisty Canadian racer overtook Michael Schumacher at the final corner at Estoril, so no one can question his racing pedigree – but that was virtually two decades ago. Mixing it with the young guns flooding Formula E, however (or even matching the first season performances of Nick Heidfeld, another former F1 man whose vacant seat he was brought in to fill) was another matter entirely. Not so much like riding a bike as being thrown onto a moving 1000cc superbike and being asked to juggle while standing in the saddle. Despite his wealth of experience, three races in Formula E left Villeneuve without a single point. He found himself ranked P18 in a table of 19 drivers, while team mate Stephane Sarrazin had made it to P8 with 16 points. What’s more, Villeneuve didn’t participate at all in the third race of the season, Punta del Este, having crashed his car hard enough in qualifying to write off the monocoque and require a completely new chassis. It’s not a situation he anticipated last summer. “It’s a series full of street circuits, which I’ve always loved,” he told me. ““It’s probably the only series now where they’re trying to make it go faster instead of slower. I’ve been racing every year in different categories but always last minute, jumping in and figuring things out. Sometimes that works but sometimes it’s hell because you don’t have time to change anything or have time to adapt. But it’s made me a better driver. It’s made me more relaxed about what can go wrong. Also, after Nascar, it’s nice to get back into an open wheel car, to be back in a cockpit, having to brake, downshift and go through corners with a car that’s not crazy heavy.” He paused, before adding: “Obviously there’s the element of competition and you have to find tricks. You have to work with the engineers and work on the set up of the car. Then, when you get in the race situation, there’s a lot of energy saving and you have to recharge the batteries and all that is intricate in the driving because you have to be fast at the same time. I find that very exciting.” That phrase hung in the air a little at the time; it does so now even more. The second season hasn’t been easy on Venturi, either. The team parted ways with squad principal Nicolas Mauduit in the hopes of improving race day operations after lurching from disaster to disaster in the first season. Yet, despite designing its own second season powertrain (really, an
34 / March 16
evolution of the McLaren-specced first season system) the team had accumulated just Sarrazin’s 16 points after the first three rounds. What’s more, the outfit has been comprehensively outshone by Dragon Racing; having bought Venturi’s powertrain, the red liveried cars have gone on to rack up a pole position, a podium and 62 points in the first four rounds (and that’s after double suspension failures in Malaysia prevented both Dragon drivers from scoring points). Whether Villeneuve misjudged the level of technical understanding and mechanical sympathy required to race in Formula E (and he wouldn’t be the first) or whether he simply found that Venturi are still missing a magic ingredient, his confidence prior to jumping into the hotseat now rings a little hollow. It could even be mistaken for bravado. “On skis, I’ll always jump a bigger cliff than other guys, just for personal satisfaction, ego… whatever you call it,” he admitted. “That’s the biggest thing my father gave me and I brought that all through my career. That’s why I would try to go through Eau Rouge flat out in Spa for example. It didn’t bring anything, maybe half a tenth on the whole lap and a huge amount of risk. But that feeling when you can get out and say – ‘Hey guys, I did it and you didn’t.’ That’s all it was down to. At the same time, the education I received maybe allowed me to judge the risks a little bit better.” There’s more to Villeneuve’s Formula E stint than machismo however, something far more human: the refusal to accept the limitations of age. “Because the racing landscape evolves, what was good five years ago doesn’t work anymore today – you always have to adapt, you always have to learn,” he explained, somewhat prophetically as it’s turned out. “The other thing is, with my kids now, I want them to see me race. I have to prove to them that I’m still a racer.” Motor racing isn’t the place for growing old with dignity, however. “Every day you have something to prove,” Villeneuve said, looking me straight in the eye. “That’s what keeps me young and fit: the racing.” But against a new generation of fast drivers, in Formula E’s world of ever-more-complex machinery, different driving techniques and previous little track time, it only took three races to show that the chequered flag doesn’t treat veterans with the sort of respect that the history books do.
current-e.com / 35
STRIKES Did former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve misjudge the ferocity of Formula E? WORDS : Noor Amylia Hilda PHOTOGRAPHY : Shivraj Gohil
28 / March 16
current-e.com / 29
FEATURES / THree Stikes
O
h, Jacques. It’s not been a good winter for the 44-year-old racer, who has left the Venturi Formula E team just three races into the 2015-16 season. What went wrong?
30 / March 16
“I would say I’m more competitive today but more thoughtful as well and that’s what comes with experience,” the man himself told me recently, with a poignancy that has been emphasised with the weight of recent events. “You go through your career and you make mistakes – and you accept the mistakes and learn from them. I’ve always tried to put the blame on my shoulders even when it wasn’t my fault, just to find a way to not get into that situation again. So through the years, as long as you’re not afraid, as long as you’re still willing to take the risks and make sacrifices, then you’ll just get better and better.” I first met Villeneuve on a warm afternoon in a hotel lobby, where he was on F1 duties as a pundit for French and Italian TV networks. The first Formula E race of the 2015-16 season was imminent – and, with it, Villeneuve’s debut in the new sport. He sat across me, nonchalant, clad in a polo shirt, shorts and flip flops, slightly jet lagged and (he said) in desperate need of an espresso. This is the driver who won the F1 championship in 1997, adding to 1995 CART series and Indy 500 conquests. He racked up 11 wins and 23 podium finishes in his decade in F1, with stints at Williams and BMW. Since then, he’s dipped his toe into just about every other series with wheels, including Nascar, Rallycross, V8 Supercars and even Andros Trophy ice racing. (He also came tantalisingly close to winning Le Mans in 2008, scoring second place with Peugeot.) Yet his Formula E story will now be little more than a footnote in an impressive career – and a short one at that. “I got a call when I was in Hungary saying I needed to come and test on Tuesday,” he told me, speaking shortly before a troubled preseason testing period at Donington Park in the UK began a disastrous electric racing campaign. His wiry hair was wild but greying, underlining the fact that he is virtually twice the age of others on the grid. “I was supposed to go to Canada for business so I cancelled everything, because driving is driving and you cannot beat that.” A wide grin followed. Coffee duly arrived. In between sips, Villeneuve described the secret test he did for the Monacobased Venturi team at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. “So I was sitting in Sarrazin’s seat because I didn’t even have time to make my own and I had a friend’s race suit on because I forgot to bring mine and he’s 10kg lighter than me so it was a little bit tight,” he chuckled. “We did 30 laps and it went well. It’s just natural, it’s like riding a bicycle.”
current-e.com / 31
That’s what keeps me young and fit:
the racing
32 / March 16
current-e.com / 33
FEATURES / THree Stikes
Villeneuve’s idea of riding a bicycle may have since changed. The feisty Canadian racer overtook Michael Schumacher at the final corner at Estoril, so no one can question his racing pedigree – but that was virtually two decades ago. Mixing it with the young guns flooding Formula E, however (or even matching the first season performances of Nick Heidfeld, another former F1 man whose vacant seat he was brought in to fill) was another matter entirely. Not so much like riding a bike as being thrown onto a moving 1000cc superbike and being asked to juggle while standing in the saddle. Despite his wealth of experience, three races in Formula E left Villeneuve without a single point. He found himself ranked P18 in a table of 19 drivers, while team mate Stephane Sarrazin had made it to P8 with 16 points. What’s more, Villeneuve didn’t participate at all in the third race of the season, Punta del Este, having crashed his car hard enough in qualifying to write off the monocoque and require a completely new chassis. It’s not a situation he anticipated last summer. “It’s a series full of street circuits, which I’ve always loved,” he told me. ““It’s probably the only series now where they’re trying to make it go faster instead of slower. I’ve been racing every year in different categories but always last minute, jumping in and figuring things out. Sometimes that works but sometimes it’s hell because you don’t have time to change anything or have time to adapt. But it’s made me a better driver. It’s made me more relaxed about what can go wrong. Also, after Nascar, it’s nice to get back into an open wheel car, to be back in a cockpit, having to brake, downshift and go through corners with a car that’s not crazy heavy.” He paused, before adding: “Obviously there’s the element of competition and you have to find tricks. You have to work with the engineers and work on the set up of the car. Then, when you get in the race situation, there’s a lot of energy saving and you have to recharge the batteries and all that is intricate in the driving because you have to be fast at the same time. I find that very exciting.” That phrase hung in the air a little at the time; it does so now even more. The second season hasn’t been easy on Venturi, either. The team parted ways with squad principal Nicolas Mauduit in the hopes of improving race day operations after lurching from disaster to disaster in the first season. Yet, despite designing its own second season powertrain (really, an
34 / March 16
evolution of the McLaren-specced first season system) the team had accumulated just Sarrazin’s 16 points after the first three rounds. What’s more, the outfit has been comprehensively outshone by Dragon Racing; having bought Venturi’s powertrain, the red liveried cars have gone on to rack up a pole position, a podium and 62 points in the first four rounds (and that’s after double suspension failures in Malaysia prevented both Dragon drivers from scoring points). Whether Villeneuve misjudged the level of technical understanding and mechanical sympathy required to race in Formula E (and he wouldn’t be the first) or whether he simply found that Venturi are still missing a magic ingredient, his confidence prior to jumping into the hotseat now rings a little hollow. It could even be mistaken for bravado. “On skis, I’ll always jump a bigger cliff than other guys, just for personal satisfaction, ego… whatever you call it,” he admitted. “That’s the biggest thing my father gave me and I brought that all through my career. That’s why I would try to go through Eau Rouge flat out in Spa for example. It didn’t bring anything, maybe half a tenth on the whole lap and a huge amount of risk. But that feeling when you can get out and say – ‘Hey guys, I did it and you didn’t.’ That’s all it was down to. At the same time, the education I received maybe allowed me to judge the risks a little bit better.” There’s more to Villeneuve’s Formula E stint than machismo however, something far more human: the refusal to accept the limitations of age. “Because the racing landscape evolves, what was good five years ago doesn’t work anymore today – you always have to adapt, you always have to learn,” he explained, somewhat prophetically as it’s turned out. “The other thing is, with my kids now, I want them to see me race. I have to prove to them that I’m still a racer.” Motor racing isn’t the place for growing old with dignity, however. “Every day you have something to prove,” Villeneuve said, looking me straight in the eye. “That’s what keeps me young and fit: the racing.” But against a new generation of fast drivers, in Formula E’s world of ever-more-complex machinery, different driving techniques and previous little track time, it only took three races to show that the chequered flag doesn’t treat veterans with the sort of respect that the history books do.
current-e.com / 35
