>At 07:58 PM 10/26/97 -0500, Tom Shirley wrote:
>>Don't know if you guys follow this but my man won the world Formula 1
>>Championship this morning. Jacques Villeneuve is the greatest. Long live
>>King Jacques and down with Schumuckie Boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You know one hates to be terribly cynical about this - one does pass on
hearty congratulations to the little Billy Idol lookalike but actually
Hacques Villeneuve's performances in the Williams this year reminded me
somewhat of the old line about Lotus 79s - "Even a monkey could drive the car."
(There is of course Doug Nye's later riposte - "Then they let Jarier drive
one and that just proved it.")
For my money as a motor racing enthusiast (therefore like most list members
being at best only vaguely interested in the contemporary F1 thing), JV
drove a largely a lousy season tempered only by the frequent luck that
Mercedes racing cars and Arrows and other things aren't as reliable as
Williams-Renaults. He did show a few moments of being quite quick, but his
capacity to set up the car was woeful - essentially he
needed a Damon Hill to do it for him.
It was however, very nice of Williams to employ a pair of totally
unimpressive drivers (whose reputations ought by rights to be in tatters) to
at least make it look as if the constructors championship was in doubt for a
few months.
Right, touch paper lit for all the Canadians out there, I'm off back to work.
Regards,
Patrick
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