A spokesman for former F1 world champion and former BAR driver Jacques Villeneuve says the Canadian has no interest in buying a drive with Jaguar Racing for 2004.
A spokesman for former F1 world champion and former BAR driver Jacques Villeneuve says the Canadian has no interest in buying a drive with Jaguar Racing for 2004.
The statement followed a report that Villeneuve’s manager, Craig Pollock, commissioned a sports marketing company to fund the R35 million in sponsorship for a drive with Jaguar.
CARtoday.com reported earlier that Villeneuve apparently approached McLaren requesting a possible role as test driver for the team after leaving BAR. McLaren ha s confirmed this, though it did say “no meaningful discussions have taken place.”
It has since been reported that the current McLaren test driver, Alexander Wurz, who has backing from Superfund, is a favourite for the vacant Jaguar seat, which means that Wurz has to secure a drive with Jaguar for Villeneuve to get a McLaren berth.
Alexander Wurz, Jos Verstappen, rising F3 star Christien Klien and F3000 driver Townsend Bell are also in with a chance for the Jaguar seat. The two young guns will test with Jaguar Racing at Valencia in Spain over three days towards the end of the month as part of the driver evaluation programme for next season.
Klien is backed by the Red Bull energy drinks company, which is a potential sponsor of the Jaguar team next year, though Jaguar has not ruled out the possibility of testing more drivers before deciding on its 2004 line-up.
Justin Wilson is optimistic about keeping his place with the team next year and his manager, Jonathan Palmer, has said: “The chances of Justin keeping his drive are reasonable.”