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Formula One
F1: Villeneuve Interested In F1 Return
Adam Cooper  | http://www.speedtv.com  |  Posted May 21, 2009   Monte-Carlo (MC)
Villeneuve has been plying his trade in the Speedcar series most recently (LAT)
Monaco Grand Prix Photo Gallery HERE

Jacques Villeneuve showed up in the paddock at Monaco, having made his ‘comeback’ in Bahrain last year, where he was driving in the Speedcar stock car series. But this time the former World Champion is more than just an interested spectator. While his goal remains to find the funding to run in NASCAR, he’s now got an eye on a return to the F1 cockpit, at a time when the cars are more suited to his tastes and a possible influx of new teams just might create an opportunity somewhere. Can he really find a way back in at the age of 38? Adam Cooper caught up with Jacques on Thursday afternoon.

Q: Good to see you hear in Monaco, your first Grand Prix appearance of the year. How does it feel to be back in this paddock?
‘It’s quite a stressful weekend with all the politics going on. It’s fun. Monaco is always an exciting place to come to, there’s always an amazing atmosphere.’

Q: When you come back do you realise that you miss it?
‘The paddock itself, with all the politics? Definitely not. The cars do look like a lot of fun to drive, with the slicks, no electronics. They look fun. That’s always been the good part of racing.’

Q: What do you think of this year with your old team and your old team mate doing all the winning?
‘It’s good to see that the team I built up is now winning, because at the time I was highly criticised for building up the team and racing for it. And nobody thought it would ever succeed.’

Q: And amazing to see Ferrari and McLaren struggling, and different guys at the front?
‘There’s been huge regulation changes, and this year you can’t rely any more on electronics, so you can’t just tell the driver this is how it’s going to be driven, sit down in it and drive it. The driver has to do the job of setting it up and so on, so the teams who are used to not relying on the driver are hurting right now.’

Q: And you always wanted to be back on slick tires, I guess...
‘Well, the way the cars are now and mostly next year without any refuelling is what I’ve asked for for years. I was criticised for it, and now that’s what’s happening, so that’s a little bit funny.’

Q: What’s going on with your driving career, you’ve not been doing a lot lately.
‘No, I’ve been working hard on getting budgets, which is probably the worst time ever to do that. But I persevere, I don’t give up, and it will happen at some point.’

Q: And you still want to get back into NASCAR?
‘There are two main kinds of racing in the world, F1 and NASCAR. NASCAR is extremely exciting, the two races I’ve done were a lot of fun, and very challenging.’

Q: But you’ve found it very hard to find a budget and find a good seat.
‘Correct, it’s like anything, if you’re not part of it yet, fully, it’s very hard to open the door. Once the door is open, then it’s easy to stay in.’

Q: Anywhere else you could do and race? You tried Le Mans with Peugeot.
‘Yeah, Le Mans was fun, but it’s not a career. Just racing at Le Mans is more a side thing.’

Q: What about F1? There could be new teams coming in, a lot of things happening. Do you think there could be a chance to get back in?
‘There’s a lot of movement happening, so there might be a card to play. So why not? My goal has been for the last few years NASCAR, and that’s not changing. But they are fun cars to drive, and when there are changes like are happening now, you still have to keep your fingers in there and see what could happen.’

Q: So you’re more interested now than when you left maybe?
‘With the way the cars are today, yeah, it would suit me. So it would make sense. The last few years they just didn’t suit me.’

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