Villenueve Out II

As predicted by me on the 1st August 2006 - as soon as I read the Press Release from BMW regarding JV and Hungary - Jacques Villenueve will play no further part in this year's F1 schedule, a statement from JV said

"Last week, the Team informed us of its decision to review its options for next year, including assessing Robert Kubica in a race environment at Hungary without offering me any assurance about my race seat beyond Hungary. Therefore, the Team and I agreed to part ways with immediate effect. This is really disapointing as I was looking forward to working with BMW on longer terms - going into next season capitalizing on our common experiences . I will now have more time to concentrate on future projects.
Finally, I would like to thank the Team, especially my engineers and the Team's sponsors with whom I have had real pleasure working with in the last year"

BMW boss Mario Theissen had this to say

“Jacques has performed well for us this year, scoring the Team’s first grand prix points in Malaysia, He has made a significant contribution to developing the newly formed BMW Sauber F1 Team and the performance of the car. However, after Jacques’ accident in the Hockenheim race the team decided to review its options for next year, including assessing Robert Kubica in a race environment.
Our decision to look towards evaluating our driver line up has naturally impacted Jacques’ position for the remainder of this season. We fully understand that it is difficult for Jacques to maintain his natural level of commitment in circumstances of uncertainty. We respect his position and wish him well for the future.”

Which basically means that BMW were unhappy with how many times JV had crashed recently, so wanted to see if Kubica could do better, so they dropped JV for Hungary, without telling him if he would get his seat back after the race, Kubica had a good race so they Paid JV off for the rest of his contract.

Expect him to go fishing for a NASCAR drive for 2007.

In other news, Red Bull have today confirmed that Mark Webber will partner David Coulthard next season. Good news for both Drivers, and a strong line up for the Team. With a Newey designed car, I expect them to do very well next season.