Why Villeneuve's Le Mans adventure wasn't a success

He had long looked forward to returning to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but Jacques Villeneuve will still be at home in June when the most important endurance race of the season occurs. One of the reasons why the Vanwall Racing Team sidelined the 1997 F1 champion for the attrition race in France is admittedly remarkable. Looking at the whole picture, it is clear that the partnership turned out differently for both parties than previously hoped.

When GPblog asked Villeneuve on Thursday evening why he is missing from the Vanwall line-up at Le Mans AND whether this means his adventure with the team has ended for good, the response was not what everyone is used to from him. Instead of a flowery explanation of everything that had occurred, it referred to the management of the Vanwall Racing Team. The management of the Germany-based team subsequently did not respond to interview requests.

Summary explanation

On the Sportscar365 website, team boss Colin Kolles did respond, although it was brief. "The situation is that we don’t feel that he is ready to go to Le Mans," the former Hispania Racing F1 Team boss said. "His wife is pregnant, and they are expecting the baby now, at the beginning of June. Le Mans is a big race. We cannot take the risk. For personal reasons and due to the fact that also the mileage is lacking, we decided to have a new driver, which will be Tristan Vautier.”

At the time Vanwall contracted Villeneuve, his wife was already pregnant. It was known to the team that the baby would be born around the Le Mans race, and this previously posed no problem. Indeed, Vanwall's new hypercar has driven few miles as there was not a big budget for extensive testing, and two of the three WEC races involved crashes. Villeneuve was at the wheel both times; in Portimão, he ended up in the tyre wall because his brakes suddenly failed. At Spa, the Canadian was the victim of a slide by a backmarker, which took him into the gravel.

'The car is a wild horse'

GPblog spoke to Villeneuve recently, in which the 52-year-old was highly critical of Vanwall's hypercar. He said in the interview, which should have appeared as a preview to Le Mans: "It's a very difficult car to drive. It's like I said before, it's like a wild horse that doesn't want to be tamed. So the, driving is not natural. You always have to counter. It's not intuitive. It's very strange."

Villeneuve tested Alpine's hypercar a year ago, which he found much more manageable. "I found it easier when I tested the Alpine last year. Within nine laps, that was within a second of Volkwaan. It was easy. The car was natural. Everything it did, I was expecting it. So it's as if I've driven this car all my life. This one is the opposite. It's as if I've never driven it in my life. This is different. Your brain needs to assimilate it. It needs to make it natural."

'WEC relevant until Le Mans'

Knowing Villeneuve, he also made statements to such effect in front of the team management. That explains why Kolles indicated he 'did not want to take a risk' that Villeneuve is not one with the car and crashes at Le Mans.

It is still unclear whether Villeneuve will compete in the remaining races in the WEC. At the moment, he is still on the official entry list for the 6 Hours of Monza. Whether Villeneuve himself still feels like racing there? About the WEC, he told GPblog: "Yeah, the series matters until Le Mans. The last two races are more to finish the season. That's how it is. It would be better if the final was in Le Mans. But that's just the way it is. The championship is a little bit skewered right now. It’s building up. It's the first year that there are so many competitors."