I loved watching Jacques in CART and was at Elkhart Lake when he won his
first CART race.
It would be great to see him come back but I can't blame him. Like others
have said, F1 is still the most prestigious open wheeled racing series in
the world (well, at least in Europe ;-). Think about what he'd be leaving
and what he'd be going to. CART is in BIG financial trouble. Although F1's
viewership is down...it's still F1. The cars, the glamour, the pit babes,
the corporate parties, the prestige! Who would want to willingly leave that!
:-)
Sure, BAR is a team in turmoil. They've lost numerous engineers (the last
one just went to a WRC team!). But in the end Jacques is still competing in
F1. And at the moment this is what he wants to do, even if it means driving
for a bottom end team. Keep in mind that although Jacques in Canadian, he
grew up primarily in Europe and always wanted to be a part of the F1 circus.
And those that think he's washed up...well, he's still widely regarded as
one of the best drivers and would be very competitive if he was driving for
a top team. I do agree that he is money hungry. He could easily drive for
Mercedes or Williams but would have to take a severe pay cut, something he
doesn't want to do. Now THAT pisses me off! Oh well, I'm still dreaming of a
Montoya/Villeneuve Williams roster...ha ha!
BTW, here's a link to the full story
http://www.itv-f1.com/news/news_story/12413
> yes ok.. i can accept 'seat'....
> the ONE thing i prefer about CART over any other series, is often
> overlooked. CART actually has a very varied system to determine the
> champion.
> in nascar (and IRL).. primarily ovals...
> in F1... road circuits
> CART... road circuits, temp street circuits, short ovals, speedways
> the only thing they lack is a heritage, steeped in tradition. i think
> as ignorant as most here in USA are of F1, there is equal snobishness
> in europe that CART is not as good. until you see both in person i
> would caution judgement.
> i've been a indycar fan siince '57... and an F1 fan since '62 yes i'm
> an old fart.. but i know what i'm talking about :D and thr current
> state of affairs here between CART/IRL is tearing the guts from our
> enjoyment. and my guess is CART will die in 2 years, or become a
> feeder for IRL. and IRL will begin to add road courses over the next
> couple years so that in 3 or 4 a transition will phase out CART and
> there will be one major US based open wheeled organization again.
> the joke of JV + baseball is aimed at the players here making
> astronomical $$... one player is being paid 25 MILLION a year, to
> 'play' baseball...his contract is 250 mil for 10 years.
> the average player makes 2.1 million! this in many cases is for
> sitting on the bench most of the time......
> On Thu, 29 Aug 2002 19:30:06 -0400, "ymenard"
> >> we've never been on opposite sides but i must respond to your 'worst
> >> in F1....." comment. please dont exagerate. your argument as such
> >> would include alex yoong.
> >> do you mean you consider him better than ??? christiano de matta? or
> >> gil de ferran? helio castro neves?
> >Read again ;) I didn't say better or worse drivers, I was talking about
> >being there, you know, being behind the wheel of a Formula One. I should
> >have said the "worst seat in F1 is still better then the best CART seat",
> >especially going into the 2003 season and all the conflicts of IRL/CART
> >still going on.
> >>and as for Jaques...... i think he WANTS to be a baseball player
> >LOL?
> >--
> >-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
> >-- http://www.ymenard.8m.com/
> >-- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimago-Dominguez
> >Corporation - helping America into the New World...
