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The High Performance Podcast
Jacques Villeneuve | Papaya Team Politics & Hamilton's Next Chapter (E383)
01:07:08
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- [00:00]
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- [00:30]
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- [01:38]
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- [02:39]
Jacques Villeneuve
Name just opened the door to saying stupid stuff like, you know, Max eats papaya at breakfast. Every team have their papaya rule. They don't mention it with Red Bull. Everybody's been saying, oh, but the car is made for Max. Poor second driver. Actually, no. Max is working on it, making the car better and better. I wasn't even considering the fact that I was not going to win. And that belief helps you not doubt, but it's not something you can invent. You cannot just force yourself to believe like this.
- [03:07]
Podcast Host
Hey, just a really quick note to say thank you so much to all of our new subscribers. And if you haven't yet subscribed, why not? It means you're the first to know about brand new episodes of High Performance. And it also means we can attract incredible new guests to the show. So please hit subscribe right now. Enjoy the show. Well, Jacques, thank you very much for joining us on High Performance. I was actually thinking about you on Sunday night because I was hoping we were going to have a chance to have a conversation. And I was watching Lando cross the line in tears, wanting to hug his parents. And I thought, I want to find out whether Jacques is Transported back to 97 every time he watches an F1 world champion being crowned.
- [03:47]
Jacques Villeneuve
It depends which kind of world championship it is and how it's won. Yeah, because we've seen some easy championships, 1, 4, 5 races to go, or the battle only against a teammate, but not really the two drivers at the same level. When you get a championship like this here, where there's two or three drivers, two separate teams, and there's tension because there was tension. Lando had to react because Mack was coming back with a vengeance. I mean, he was. He was really, you know, reeling them in, surprisingly, and he caught them. He got both McLaren drivers and the team by surprise. Lando had to react. So that made it exciting, that made it tense. It's a championship he could have lost. And in the end, he made sure that he drove the same way he drove end of last year when he was fighting Max, and that gave him the title. So those kind of championships, yes, they. They do bring memories.
- [04:44]
Podcast Host
I think there are so many parallels between your world title and Ando's world title. The fact that he was going up against Max Verstappen, you were going up against Michael Schumacher, the fact that we saw some questionable driving from some teams in that race, the fact there was all this talk about backing up a driver, which is exactly what Heinz Howard Frenson was doing for you back in 97. What would the emotions have been like in the cockpit for Lando? Because what you experienced would have been.
- [05:06]
Jacques Villeneuve
So similar to him, super tense. The big difference with Lando is he got into the race leading the championship, which means he wasn't in a position to take all the risks necessary. And you could see it, he wasn't. You know, he probably could have driven a little bit harder. He could have taken more risks maybe, but all he needed was P3. So all he needed was to make sure that, luckily I didn't get it in front of him and then he was okay. So it's a. I think those kind of moments are very tense because you're on the defensive. You're not going out there thinking, okay, nothing to lose. I need to get this now. It's more. If I mess up, I actually lose what I already have. And that kind of pressure, I'm guessing, must be very difficult to handle. Much more than having to go for.
- [05:54]
Podcast Host
It, I thought, particularly after his pit stop. And I know that when you won the world title, you basically had a couple of laps to get past Michael Schumacher. Right, to make sure you won the world title. And we can talk about that in a moment. But I think another parallel is that Lando came out of the pits on those new tyres and he had to get past the back markers, one of whom, of course, was Yuki Tsunoda. And that was some edgy driving, wasn't it?
- [06:15]
Jacques Villeneuve
Yeah. Well, with the DRS now, when you come upon a slower car, a car that's on older tires and definitely slower because Tunda was slower even on new tires compared to. To Lando, it's only a matter of lap or two to get by. The track has been changed. The straight lines are very long now, and there's no way that Tsunoda could have held him other than crashing him out, which he wasn't going to do. So Tsunoda, if he really wanted to disrupt Lando, should have slowed down in all the slow section, not wait until the straight line. By then, it's too late. So he could have made him lose a couple of seconds. That might have helped leclerc, but that Was it. There's not that much he could have done anyway with the AG Add on the Styres.
- [06:55]
Podcast Host
Anyway, how impressed were you with Lando this season? Because it was. There was that issue in Canada when he crashed into the wall. There was a few other moments, but then suddenly he seems to just find a calmness. And I remember watching the interviews before and after races for the last three or four weeks, and he was like, let's see what happens. He was. Felt like he wasn't trying to control everything.
- [07:15]
Jacques Villeneuve
You know, we've seen two Lando this year. The Lando and Tilbaku. Okay. Melbourne, remember, was great. He was quick. Montreal, he was aggressive. That was not a very well calculated move, even though it was a legal move. And that really set a little bit the balance until Baku. Then he had the engine failure. So out in between the two drivers of McLaren, he had the. He had the short stick in that respect during the season. So he lost more points. And. And Baku was really the. The turning point because his teammate was not there in Baku. For some reason, the whole weekend went wrong and he did not use that as an opportunity. It should have been an easy way for him to get back onto Piastri's level in points in the championship, and instead he had an awful weekend as well. And Max just appeared out of nowhere, like, oh, wow, he's a contender now. It started gradually before, but that's when it became really clear and that's. That's when we saw a change in Lando. Up to that point, he was always celebrating a lot, always pointing the finger at himself even when. When it wasn't deserved, and apologizing all the time. And then from that point on, he became more like. Like a winner in his attitude as well, like going for it. I guess him fighting Max is easier than him fighting his teammate. It's a very different approach. When you find a driver from a different team, you don't know what strategies they're doing. You don't need to play nice against your teammate. Of course you need. And you want to beat your teammate, but you also have to be friendly. You still have to. To play along the team's lines. It's a very difficult balance as a driver where you have to be selfish because you're in your car. You know, it's not like playing soccer, hockey, or where, you know, you pass the ball and you can score together there. You're kind of working on your own because you do have to beat your teammate. But at the same time, you have to work for the team. So it's. It's a very difficult balance to handle. And the minute he started focusing on Max instead of his teammate, he started driving like he did the second half of last year. And he became a lot stronger both mentally on the track, driving. And he got the point. He got the points. So there was only Qatar. That was not fantastic in the scheme of things, where things kind of went wrong when they had the pace. But otherwise that second half, then he went ahead of his teammate and he managed to keep Max behind.
- [09:41]
Podcast Host
What about the fact that the rules of engagement when you're battling a driver from another team are very clear? The rules of engagement when you're battling someone within your own team is very different. I mean, you know, you. You battled famously with Damon hill, right, in 1996. Heinz, our friends are not quite the same. But he challenged you quite often in races. And what is the secret to battling with a teammate and just getting.
- [10:04]
Jacques Villeneuve
I don't know. We're all different, you know, it's all our mindset. You can see, I guess, the best way to test someone's attitude in this situation how. How they are, is when you play a board game. You'll see the sore loser, you'll see the ones who will try and cheat you, you'll see the ones who will try to destroy everyone just for the sake of it. You can really see that. It's like playing. Playing a game like that. It's. It's very interesting with your teammate. A lot depends first on your contract, what you're allowed to do or not, and it's written, and what the two drivers are allowed to do or not. It's quite clear. But also, you should never do anything that's detrimental to the team in itself. That's the first key. Because ultimately, contract, even if it's in your contract or not, if you do something detrimental to the team, at some point you'll pay the price. That's normal. It will come back to bite you. Karma, in a way. When I was battling Damon and French and it was two different aspects, and that's what happened to Lando as well. When I arrived in the team, Damon was the one that was supposed to be world champion in 96. He had been working with the team for a long time. He had sweated for that team a lot. Two championships taken away by Michael. Not always in the nicest of ways. My goal was to learn from him and obviously to beat him. But I was also okay with him winning because he did deserve it. So there was a Lot of respect. We fought hard. I pushed him and he made me better. But at the end of the season, when he ended up winning, I was like, okay, no, that's well deserved. It's fair. He's been working hard at it, and next year is my year. That's okay. When friends and came, that was very different because the team took friends and as the next future world champion, and that got on the bad side of me because I'm the one who had been working on that car, developing it, working hard a year before to make sure 97 was my season. So the internal work was more selfish, I would say. And part of the work was to try and also destroy friends and to make sure that the team would stop or the head of the team would stop pushing on that side and refocus on me being the world champion. That was it. So that was my first job. That's not something Damon did with me or I did with Damon because he could see that I didn't come in to beat him. That's a very different thing. So similar thing happened with Piastri. He's the one who's been building that car, building that team for quite a few years now. Piastri is the new boy in the team. Last year, he's the one who was kind of fighting for the championship. Didn't really get any help from his teammate when he could have. And he could have won it last year. So he had to put his foot down. He had to cement his position as. As the team leader and win it this year. That's where it's very different as teammates, how you battle and when. And also this could be the only year in the next 10 years that McLaren has a shot at being champion with the new rules coming in.
- [12:56]
Podcast Host
How do you think Oscar feels at the moment? Because he's saying all the things in the media.
- [13:02]
Jacques Villeneuve
Terrible. He must be feeling terrible because he's been. He was. He had the championship in hand, he was controlling it, and it all disappeared and he didn't. And by the time he realized it was disappearing, it was too late to react. You know, he got speed in the last two races, but it was too late. It was just way too late.
- [13:19]
Podcast Host
Will he feel like things have been unfair? Will he feel like he didn't get much help in his title challenging season and his teammate got help from him this season?
- [13:29]
Jacques Villeneuve
He might feel like that. Some people might be talking in his ear saying, you see, the team didn't help you. They went wrong against. But that's not the truth. It's a big team. They didn't make one car slower. There was no work done that way. Ultimately they were wanted to be world champion with either drivers they both have. Piastri is this new upcoming young driver, great image. If he wins, Norris is there for a while, strong, been working with the team. So either or would have been good. But ultimately he might start thinking like this and might start believing it, but that would be far fetched.
- [14:07]
Podcast Host
What did you think of Lando being booed at race? Because people, and I've seen it online as well, say he doesn't deserve the title because McLaren favored him over his teammate. Do you think that's total nonsense?
- [14:20]
Jacques Villeneuve
That's a bit ridiculous. When there was some booing and some races, that was embarrassing. You should never boo a driver that's clean, doesn't do anything dirty on track, is respectful and on top of it it's super fast. What's wrong with people? That was embarrassing. Now had it been that Piastri was second a lap faster than him and somehow Lando was winning because a lot of things were happening, his car breaking down every time, then you could start thinking, okay, that's really not cool, that's not fair. But that wasn't the case. And in the second half Norris has been faster right at the beginning as well, last year as well. So there's this whole middle of the season where Piastri was driving a lot better than Norris and was getting the points. Norris had an engine blowing up, not Piastri. And so those fans, they don't look at that either. So, you know, you have to look at the whole picture at the whole season and suddenly if your favorite is starting to go backwards, you just got to bite the bullet and accept it. Your favorite is just going backwards. Doesn't mean that the other one is treated better or the other one is undeserving. Just because the one you're a fan of is not winning right now, that's really wrong. If you're a fan of the sport, then you have to be a fan of the sport and understand when your driver is maybe not cutting it at this point in time, even though he was before and he will in the future again. It's all a question of timing. But that's the price we have to pay now with social media and how big F1 has become. It's very passionate. The people are passionate. Fans come from fanaticism. You stop thinking when you get in that mindset and it happens to all of us. You want something so much that you get attached. It's hard to start seeing reality. So you'll try to mold the reality to your thought process. And if your champion is not winning and it cannot be his fault, it cannot be. It has to be something from the outside. It has to be the team destroying his chance or not favoring, and so on and so on and so on. But there's nothing concrete behind those comments. It's pure fandom. And it'll always be like this. And ultimately, it's not a bad thing. You know, drivers at that, sportsman at that level have to grow a thick skin. If not, you don't deserve to be there. You just have to have a thick skin because they're all very happy to get the compliments. They love it when it's just positive, but it gets balanced out with, with negatives. And you need to be able to take and accept the negatives as well. It goes both way, both ways. You cannot have just the good. You just have to be a thick skin and know that it's part and parcels of what's going on. And in one month it will be forgotten and maybe everything will change and it'd be the other driver that suddenly will be criticized and so on. So it's just. That's just the way it is.
- [17:06]
Podcast Host
What is the secret as a Formula one driver to getting your mind in a space where it is your. Where it's your friend and not your enemy? Did you ever have issues with it?
- [17:15]
Jacques Villeneuve
I never had an issue with that. The more pressure there was, the better I was, really. I don't know. I don't know if it's the way I grew up. Everything has an effect on who you are today. Everything that happened from being born until the day you become a world champion, it's all part and parcels of growing up, of. Of becoming the man, the woman, the person that you are at the end of the day and something that happened to you when you were three year old is probably something you'll carry on for the rest of your life and you're not even aware of it. I always rebelled when I was a little bit the underdog, when it was tough, when you had to go for it the American way, like they do in sports. They all turn up at the Olympics, suddenly they start winning, and so on and so on. Then the World Cups, there's a fighting attitude, like a belief I can do it and I will, and I will show them that I can do it. But you truly believe it. It's not just words that you say out there. Because, oh, it's nice to say you deeply, deeply believe it. And I've had this situation, I remember like four races to go, I think, and Michael had a big league, points wise, not a lead that I could catch. And I was having dinner with a friend and you say, oh, okay, you lost the championship and what are you going to do? You know, it's tough. And I looked and said, what do you mean? I am winning this championship. And I was convinced that there was no doubt. He said, but how? Don't worry, you'll see, it will happen. I will win this championship. And I wasn't even considering the fact that I was not going to win. And that belief helps you not doubt, helps you move forward, but it's not something you can invent. You cannot just force yourself to believe like this. If you look at Max, the way he grew up, the way he got into racing, it was make or break. It might not be the best way or the easiest way to raise a kid and most kids would be destroyed by that him. It made him stronger, it made him the racer and even the man that he is today. And you see him socially as well. And he's a pure, passionate and he goes out there and nothing else exists. And you will always get the results. Somehow for me, I guess it's my dad's passing really changed me. Where on that minute I went from a crybaby to someone super strong for some reason. Then I went to, I went to boarding school. So away from family, away from everything, started ski racing. And for me that was very constructive because the boarding school is like a little society in itself with its own set of rules. You have to make your way, which is what happens when you're older. And that was very constructive. But I knew all my life, since I was five years old, I would race cars. I didn't know how, but it was going to happen. So the minute there was a tiny opportunity, I jumped at it. And when I started racing, I was judged as if I'd been racing for the last five years instead of, this is the first time I hold a steering wheel in my hand. So that put a huge amount of pressures. It was the same thing. It was go home or find a way to become competitive. So all that was super constructive. And when it became the time to win the championship, when it was crunch time, all that baggage was super helpful. It's what allowed me to believe and go for it at the 1 millisecond where I could make the move or not. You know, there's that split moment of decision, and it worked out. It does damages in other areas, socially or whatever. You know, it's not that it's not a perfect school, but for that, for what we're talking about, which is you need to go win your world championship or your sports, it was very positive. Then you just have to decide how to work with all the negatives.
- [20:40]
Podcast Host
It's very interesting, isn't it? Because we've done over 400 episodes of high performance, Jack. And so often when we sit and have conversations with people, they talk to us about trauma leading to triumph. You know, the challenges at a young age are often the things that. That create people. And we spend our lives as parents trying to help our children to avoid anything that is challenging, anything that is disappointing, anything that's hard. Yet you are able to sit here and probably say, if it wasn't for your trauma as a young boy, there's a strong chance you wouldn't be sitting here as a Formula one world champion, right?
- [21:13]
Jacques Villeneuve
Oh, I wouldn't be. I definitely wouldn't be. And it's not a question of talent. It's up here. How you approach situation, how you react, your gut feeling, and that controls a big part of your life and the decision making. When you don't have time to think about it, when you have to, you know, when you're that hunter and. And you have to pounce, you don't have time to think. It has to be natural. It has to be what you're driving force. But the thing is, yeah, okay, we call it trauma, but I don't see it as trauma because it made me who I am today. And I don't have. Somehow I don't see almost anything as a negative memory, which. Which is maybe what is. With his help, I don't. I have never spent any of my, even my youth feeling sorry or sad for myself about having lost my dad and so on and so on. Everything was a construction in what was happening tomorrow. And that's how I've led all my life. But not by decision, just naturally. That's how it's happened.
- [22:17]
Podcast Host
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- [24:36]
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- [25:06]
Equip Health Representative
We live in a culture obsessed with dieting, weight loss and exercise, and that can make eating disorder behaviors easy to miss. But the reality is eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that take a major toll on your health and your life. But recovery is possible. Eating disorders are more common than you might think. Chances are you know someone who is struggling with one, or maybe you're struggling yourself. If you're concerned about an eating disorder in yourself or a loved one, I want to introduce you to eqip. EQIP is a fully virtual evidence based eating disorder treatment program that helps patients achieve lasting recovery. At every EQIP patient is matched with a multidisciplinary care team that includes a therapist, dietitian, medical provider and mentors. And you get a personalized treatment plan that's tailored to your unique goals and challenges. EQIP treats patients of all ages and all eating disorder diagnoses. It's covered by insurance and there's no wait list. If you think that you or a loved one could be struggling with an eating disorder, don't wait to get help. Visit Equip Health to learn more. That's Equip Health.
- [26:17]
Podcast Host
So how can we raise people to have that kind of winner's mindset that you've got, but also not. Not have to have them go through the kind of like the challenges that you went through or the, the hard times that you went through. If, if you don't look at them.
- [26:30]
Jacques Villeneuve
As trauma, you can't, you can't actually, you can help, you can give a dry a line, but then everyone has to do it on their own. You can make someone's life as hard as humanly possible. It might not make them strong, it might just make them collapse. Everyone is different. But ultimately, unless you have to fight for something, you won't build any strength if it's given to you on a platter. So you can still be amazing, you can still be super fast, you can still go out and win, but there will always be a tough moment, something that will crunch you. And the key is how will you react to those moments.
- [27:09]
Podcast Host
Back to the racing. Have you changed your mind on Papaya Rules?
- [27:13]
Jacques Villeneuve
The name. It's the name that's awful. It's the name. That's the name. I mean, I don't know. Think about it.
- [27:21]
Podcast Host
Let's be fair. The name is a bit cheesy, isn't it?
- [27:23]
Jacques Villeneuve
Yeah, exactly. The name just opened the door to saying stupid stuff like, you know, max eats papaya at breakfast. You know, that kind of. It's fun. And it was great when they were winning easily. Everything. Because it's all chummy and friendly and we'll all love each other and we all live in La la land. But that's not the case. And every team have their papaya rule. They just don't call them like that. And they don't bring it out. They don't mention it.
- [27:49]
Podcast Host
It is lovely, though, seeing them race like that. You know, 2007, when McLaren lost the title by a single point because they allowed their drivers to race each other, would definitely have been in Zach's mind. And I do. I do now think that he does. He. He deserves more credit than he gets for allowing, even in the last race of the season, for Oscar to thunder past Max in Lando in that first corner.
- [28:11]
Jacques Villeneuve
But that's one question we need to raise. Did he allow it or was it in the driver's contract? We don't know. Because, you know, every contract is either one driver is the clear leader. Fine. Or other contracts. It's. We cannot stop you from going and trying to win your championship as long as you mathematically can win it.
- [28:33]
Podcast Host
Yeah.
- [28:33]
Jacques Villeneuve
If the contracts are like this, they could never, ever have told Oscar to help Lando because he still had a shot. And, and both Lando and Max could have blown an engine on the last lap. And it's that simple. So it's easy to say papaya rules, but we don't know what's in the contract. If they had had a contract where Lando is the number one because he's been with us for five, six, seven years, you're the new driver. So right now, the first two or three years, you help him and then the balance will change. Then we would have seen team orders earlier in the season. It's that simple. Now, you made allusions to the 2007, but I'm not sure they were allowed to race each other that hard. But they could just. Just couldn't be controlled. Remember, Alonso was signed by the team as the double world champion, meaning you are our hero. You're the one who is here to go and win. And, and, and then suddenly they signed Lewis and the whole team is, hey, he's a champion, not you. You don't do that to Alonso. So he turned evil. He turned really mean. And his only work at that point was it was better for him for Lewis to not win the championship and him finishing second than the other way around. And understand, because that's exactly what Williams tried to do when Frenzen came in like, whoa, what's going on here. I wasn't world champions yet, but that's what I had worked on. So I understand. And Alonso's reaction was completely normal. So that's where the damage to the team happened. It's when that socially happened. Instead of just let Alonso win this year. You know Lewis is his first year. Don't. Don't. And that they would have finished first and second in championship instead of second and third.
- [30:13]
Podcast Host
And when Frankson came in and you noticed the behaviors among the team and the messages that you were getting and you said you had to destroy your teammate, how did you go about destroying him on the track? Mentally playing psychological games. What was your. What was your.
- [30:29]
Jacques Villeneuve
It's a. It's a mixture but it mainly happens on the track. It mainly happens a track. But then there's a few situations outside of the car where you just show that you actually don't care and that the guy is not there to win.
- [30:43]
Podcast Host
Can you give us an example?
- [30:44]
Jacques Villeneuve
It happens a lot in testing. And the same happened with Jensen when he joined the team because it was my team bar. And then when David Richards took over, suddenly they signed Jensen because he's our future champion. Hey, hold on. What's going on here? So the same thing happened there sadly because we actually get along even with eins Harold. We get super well along. You spend the whole winter testing. You're always a 10th or two beyond your teammate because you've been there for a while and you're busy setting your car up so you don't push to the edge. But your new teammate wants to demonstrate that he is the real deal. So he will do quality laps the whole time. So you let him be a 10:32 until the last five minutes of the last test before the start of the season where suddenly you put in a quick one. You beat him by 1/10. And those two month of winter testing. So he disappear because of that one lap. And then you fly to the. To the first race. And that has a big effect. It starts with stuff like that in Australia.
- [31:37]
Podcast Host
Up against Jensen Button. Didn't you pit a lap later than you intentionally?
- [31:41]
Jacques Villeneuve
That was an odd season because I think. Was it.
- [31:43]
Verizon Advertiser
Was it?
- [31:44]
Jacques Villeneuve
Yeah. First season. I don't remember which of the two. But the car was breaking down every race. Every single race. Which was so frustrating even my steering wheel broke. So that become. That became very frustrating. And it was the time where you would qualify with fuel. Like you would choose how much fuel you wanted to start the race with. So if you wanted to do a one stop fuel. You had 30 kilos more fuel than your teammate. So in quality, you qualified behind and you looked like an idiot, which was okay in the race because then you would do one pit stop and you would end up ahead. Except that my car was breaking down almost every time before that first pit stop. And I was almost always qualifying with more fuel because I could. I was always good at saving the tires, saving the fuel. So going one stop suited me. Once we got in race trim, and there was one race like that that was so frustrating, which was Barcelona, where I qualified 1/10 behind him, I think. So very close, but with a one fuel load, so that's like half a second of fuel. So that was very good. We're very happy. Then we start the race and I'm in his gearbox the whole time. So, okay, great. He will pit in a few laps, then I'm on one stop and race done. But my car broke down even before he pitted. So the perception is, you know, what a loser look. And there's nothing you could say. So, though, at that point, maybe I should have focused on qualifying instead of race. My goal was to go get races, race points. So we did what we thought was the best. It didn't pan out, and that made it very difficult. But that was never a battle against Jensen anyway. So we got along. There was never an issue there. It's just before the season started, I think I called him a band. He was a boys band. He was part of a boys band. And just when we did the driver presentation and he wasn't expecting it, so that kind of shocked him a bit. But then we had fun. So the problem is I was being pounded from inside my own team, and I actually owned the team. So that was a very difficult situation, and I didn't know how to handle that. I had always had my management, my people around me, and I always felt protected. And that was the first time where I was just out there on my own, no protection. And that was a very, very, very difficult moment because of that, when you suddenly feel completely alone. Of course, you have your engineer, you have your few people like this, but politically, suddenly I wasn't protected anymore. So that made it tough. But it never stopped us from working together with Jensen because we knew that we didn't have a winning car, and we had to work together to make that car better anyway. So by helping each other out, we would make each other better as well. So that was okay. There was never an issue on that respect in between us. It all kind of exploded outside with the media. And then it became just bigger than it actually was.
- [34:44]
Podcast Host
I want to talk about the day that you became world champion, because I remember I was a big fan watching the sport at home back then. And in the buildup, remind me if I'm right about this. In the build up to that race, it felt like you were constantly reminding people that Michael Schumacher might a. A dirty game. Am I right?
- [35:03]
Jacques Villeneuve
100%. You were talking about before how you play the game outside of the car politically and so socially. And that was a big part of it because we got to Suzuka two weeks before, I think it was, and I had a nine points lead and that was 10 points for a win. So. And that's. There were three tracks where I was always unbeatable. It was Melbourne because, like 97, I beat my teammate by almost two seconds on pole. And he was P2. So that. And every year this was the track where for some reason I was quick. Spot and Suzuka, those were three tracks where I always ended up qualifying better, better than the car. And other tracks were like many cool. I wouldn't even make Q2 in a car that should be top three. So there's a few tracks like that that don't work and some that you don't know why you're always quick. So got pole. But Saturday morning, we get out of the pits, a car stops on the. On the back stretch. So first lap out of pits, and six of us drive by. We're not that speed yet. Just didn't lift. Just, oh, okay, yellow flag. There's a cardio. Oh, that's strange. And then we. We got our run going and they used that to disqualify me for the whole weekend. Like, oh, okay, cool. That sounds a little bit odd. That sounded extreme. So instead of winning easily the championship in Suzuka ended up getting to Jerez with one point behind Michael. That made us feel like the underdog.
- [36:22]
Podcast Host
Why was that penalty applied for you, do you now believe?
- [36:26]
Jacques Villeneuve
Because four months earlier something happened. I don't remember what. So say, oh, look, four months ago you did this, so now we disqualify you, but not the other five. Yeah. So that was a little bit harsh. And that put us in a very aggressive mood. And that's when I started using the media really pounding on the fact that he had taken Damon out to go and win and so on, and is driving antics just to start, first of all to put pressure on him to make sure the media would start talking about it. And then we got to Jerez and the FI said, if something nasty happens, there'll be a huge penalty, that driver will be disqualified. So that work was super important, the outside of the car, because then once we got in the race, Michael drove differently. He wasn't planning on taking me out because he did let me dive on the inside. He didn't see it coming. So it was at the back of his mind. And that made him do the move in the wrong way. It made him react instead of preparing it. And that's, in the end, what allowed me to win.
- [37:32]
Podcast Host
So do you think that he was planning in his head that if he saw you overtaking him at any point, he would try and take you out of the race?
- [37:40]
Jacques Villeneuve
I don't think so. Not in that race. But it was a reaction. And you can see it was just an instinct, a reaction. Thankfully, it didn't work out, but it was.
- [37:50]
Podcast Host
It was an attempt to take out. Right, you're clear on that now?
- [37:53]
Jacques Villeneuve
Oh, well, yeah, it is clear. It's. It's been. It's. It's not just me that says it. And. And he also got disqualified for the whole season. So it was quite clear.
- [38:05]
Podcast Host
Yeah, I remember the Martin Brundle commentary because we were. I was watching it in the uk. Do you remember what Martin said? He goes, you've hit the wrong part of his car, my friend. Obviously, you know, those two had a bit of rivalry going back as well. And I just. I mean, what a moment.
- [38:21]
Jacques Villeneuve
What was.
- [38:22]
Podcast Host
So as soon as you get hit by Schumacher, you're. Are you then thinking, is my car broken? Are you wobbling the wheel? Are you trying to work out if your suspension still intact? Are you looking for a punch? Or what are you thinking at that point?
- [38:34]
Jacques Villeneuve
Well, the first thing, my car bounced up in the air. So it was a big hit. And then my first thought was, okay, let's stay on the track. Let's make sure that I don't get in the gravel. And a couple of seconds later, once I am on the track and managed to slow down, I'm thinking, okay, that was a big hit. Something will have been damaged or will have lost its strength in the car. So I just slowed down. Not slow down really, in lap time a bit, but mainly not hitting the brakes like a hammer, not getting on the throttle like hammer. So doing everything. And same thing with the stringer. So driving. Driving it as if you had a, you know, a kid in your car that's about to puke, you know, or a dog in the trunk. You need to just be everything super smooth or you have eggs or something in your car, you know, just start avoiding the curbs, just focusing on that until the end of race. Not paying attention to anything else on the racetrack.
- [39:27]
Podcast Host
So hacking in the tune, Maca. You let them come past you because for you it was then just a case of get to the end, pick up more than a point and become the world champion.
- [39:38]
Jacques Villeneuve
Well, the team didn't let me know they were catching me. I didn't pay attention. And in the mirrors, I didn't see it. I wasn't paying attention. I was really just focusing and thank God I did because the battery mount was broken. It was hanging on the electrical cables. So it should have come off. Yeah, because that's exactly what he hit. So it should have broken there and then and it shouldn't have survived the rest of the race. Had I not slowed down, it would have broken for sure. But then when they got close, then Jock came nearer, say, you know, the Mika is just in your gearbox, so that, you know, don't be stupid. Remember what, what we're here for, which is going to win the championship. And I thought, yep, no problem, don't care. But also I thought I would win so many more races after that. So I didn't care about one today. I care about that one. That would have been one more. Mostly because no other win came afterwards.
- [40:30]
Podcast Host
Yeah, but Jacques, if you'd have tried to win the race, that could have been the thing that knocked the battery off and then you may have not been the world champion.
- [40:36]
Jacques Villeneuve
Oh, definitely. But ultimately, had I known 10 laps earlier, the rate at which they were catching me, I could have gone a tenth a lap faster. Right, right, right. That wouldn't have made the difference. Then it would have been okay because they caught me with three corners to go. But then once Mika was ahead, then I left David past because we're good pals. So I thought, ah, come on, that'd be nice. You know, I don't care. We'll be on the podium together. I. I really didn't care. And it's funny because he gets by me. And then on the front, on the. Just before the start, he slows down as well because he's. He told me he was thinking, man, is Jack champion or not? Am I stealing away his championship? So it was a very fun and confusing, confusing moments. So at that point, when I saw him there, he was my party dude that year. So. So. And it's funny because all the time I spent with him in 97 away from the track mentally helped me as well. To take this team off. So I think that. That. That. That's why when. When he was third and I was second, I just let him buy as well. It was like a little thank you.
- [41:41]
Podcast Host
So you and David going out and partying in that title winning season helped you? Because, again, this is really interesting. The media, if they see a driver challenging for a Formula one world title and they go out drinking or they have a bit of a party, suddenly criticism, and are they professional? Do they really care? Actually, what you're saying is there's an argument for the fact that everyone in life needs a counterpoint to the pressure of doing whatever it is they're doing. And for you, it was you and DC in Tokyo having fun.
- [42:09]
Jacques Villeneuve
Yes. You need to let the steam off somewhere or another. But back then, you didn't have social media, you didn't have cell phones that took pictures every five seconds. It was just a different era. And we didn't have simulators. Now all they do is play on their simulators or do something else. But we were racing. We had less races, but we're testing in between every race. So it was intense, it was continuous. The amount of mileage we're doing was just crazy. And we're training like maniacs as well. So you needed that one or two days where you could just let loose. Yeah, but oftentimes it would just be David or me, you know, calling, hey, what are you up to? You know, let's go for coffee. Let's just go for a little bite, a little drink and. But that little bite or drink would. Would end up going, finishing very late. And there's one race where we almost paid the price because we had a big party like that on the Wednesday night before going to Budapest. It wasn't planned. We're about to go to bed and, you know, a coffee turned into a 5am party. So then we get to Budapest, and it's the hottest race of the year. It's hot. There's no straight line, and we're running second and third, I think, because Damon is up in the lead. Anyway, we're not leading, maybe even third and fourth, I don't remember. But David is catching me, and I'm saying, oh, come on, just stop pushing. You know, because I. I was sweating, it was hard, so I had to push because he was pushing me. And then he was thinking the same thing. And he told me after race, he said, why didn't you just slow down? I would have slowed down, too. I was. I was like, so. So that. That was. That Was. That was a very funny.
- [43:53]
Podcast Host
So for the last week, Lando Norris has woken up every day as the former non world champion. What does it feel like those first few days?
- [44:01]
Jacques Villeneuve
It's an achievement and someone I think my wife told me there's less world champions than the astronauts that went into space. It's a very small, tiny number of us that have achieved that at the pinnacle of the sport and it's now become the biggest sport in the world, in the land. So it's an incredible achievement. It's a lot of work and it's something that you will have with him for the rest of his life. His parents invested a lot in him, supported him all the way through. And it's a huge risk, It's a huge investment. It's paid off big time. And he went and snatched it and he became competitive and quick and hard when it mattered.
- [44:49]
Podcast Host
And is there a risk that when you win a world championship it doubles the, it doubles the flame, the desire to go again. Which is why people like Max and Lewis and Michael are so unique.
- [44:59]
Jacques Villeneuve
It depends on the driver. Take Nico Rosberg signs his biggest contract ever with a lifetime ambassador deal. And he just threw it all in the garbage because suddenly he realized he didn't enjoy racing, he didn't enjoy cars. The only goal was to become a world champion like his dad, but no passion. And I find that very odd. And there's a few drivers out there like that, they're having fun, they can drive fast, but they don't have that hunger that will keep them driving hard. And when you look at Max, it doesn't matter which race it is, how many championship he's won. He's always the same actually. More and more he wants it more. Prost, Senna, Mansell, all those drivers, never slowed them down, only made them better every time. No. Okay, one done. How can I be better to go get a second one? How, how do I keep on driving even if not I'm winning easily so I don't fall asleep like has happened. Some drivers good, it's, it's really hard to get the diesel going back on. You know, if you've gone to sleep a bit, if you lose your mojo, it's really hard to get to get it back. So you need to keep it going. Just driver dependent and it's how much passion there is into. Is your passion just F1 being a star and driving fast and it's fun or is your passion racing? Racing just being out there, the competitive nature of it and all, all the tough moment it brings, you know, it's like golfing. There's not that many shots that make you feel fantastic, but the few good ones make you swallow the bad ones. All the bad ones. And same thing in racing, there's many more lows than highs oftentimes, but it's how you keep coming back. And for that you need that drive, you need that passion that Max is showing. And it's a passion not about F1, not about being a start. It's a passion about racing, being competitive, always becoming better. Working with the car, the engineers, the setup. What can you get, what can you make different so you can be better than the rest of the. Every time.
- [46:56]
Podcast Host
And I think sometimes a driver just has that passion because they love driving. I think other times things happen to them that lights that fire. And I think a good example this season is Carlos Sainz. I mean, I wonder whether the phone call from Ferrari to say, hey, guess what? We've signed Lewis in your place, lit something in him that we've seen this season. I remember you saying, actually at the start of the season, you said, he'll be the biggest surprise of the season, didn't you? So you obviously knew that he would deliver.
- [47:21]
Jacques Villeneuve
Yeah, that probably didn't go down with it. From moving from a team like Ferrari to a team that last year was not, you know, in the top tier. Yeah, but seeing how the seasons went, he's probably very happy. On the other hand, it's what he's done everywhere he's gone to. You know, when he was teammate with Max at. At. Was it Toro Rosso at the time, he was doing quite well. There was nothing to be shy about or embarrassed about, so he was doing well. And he comes in very educated, very focused. Different upbringing than a lot of others. Obviously. His father is still racing and the Dakar is still competitive. So there's an attitude there that he saw, that he grew up with. I think that is helpful. But every team he's been to, he's made the teams better. Every time it took time, like the first half of the season, he was a little bit struggling himself, pace wise compared to his teammate, until he made the car better, suited the car more better for himself. It made both drivers go faster, but it had a bigger positive effect on him than his teammate every time. And every time he left the team, the team went down. That's happened when he left Renault, that's happened. Yeah, it was still Renault. It's happened when he left McLaren for a little while and it's happened to Ferrari. Now Then he gets to Williams and same things happen again. It pumps his teammate. The teammate goes super fast. He works at it, works it gets the car better. And they got, as a team, much better results with very little evolutions on the car. Just working on what they are getting a direction, being focused, imposing. Also what he feels, what he wants. And at the end of the year, he's quick and the car is quicker and that's why they signed him.
- [48:57]
Podcast Host
What is it that he does other than drive the car fast? That means he has this kind of impact.
- [49:01]
Jacques Villeneuve
He's working on the car, that's all. He actually understands what the car is doing and he's thinking about it. You know, like Max, he goes home, he's always thinking about racing, about the car. He knows what he needs. And it's not a question of, oh, there's understeer, there's oversteer. No, that's useless. That is completely useless. There are times where you have to adapt your driving to understand what the problem on the car is so you can fix it, so you can go back to your normal driving style and so on. It's. It's a. Everything complements itself. And there's a million reasons why you might have understeer. Do you have understeer halfway through the corner? Because the rear is a little bit loose when you go in, a little bit nasty. So you can't turn in, you can't carry speed in, and because of that, the front is not loaded. So halfway through the corner you start understeering. And because of that understeer, you'll come out of the corner completely sideways. So sometimes, hey, listen, I've oversteer when I come out. No, you don't. You have understeer in the middle, but because of that understeer, it's because you have oversteer when you come in. That's where the problem starts. And they have no clue. They don't comprehend it. These drivers will be incapable of making a car evolve because they'll try to fix a problem that does not exist. They will try to fix their own problem. So they just keep making the car worse and worse. They might get to a point where they go two or three times faster themselves because they figured. But they made the car worse so both drivers go slower. And that's been an issue with Red Bull. Everybody's been saying, oh, but the car is made for Max. Poor second driver. Actually, no. Max is working on it, making the car better and better. If you're incapable of driving it or. Or figuring out what the issue is during the season, you'll end up going slower and slower and slower. Not because you're actually slower, but because Max will go faster and faster. That's because you're incapable of actually understanding what is going on with the car. So obviously they will work with Max and obviously the car will become undrivable for you. We saw it with Paris. Every year they would start a season on par and that was it. Paris didn't start going slower. Max started going faster and faster and faster. Very simple. Because he could actually comprehend what was happening with the car. And sometimes you'll have understeer because the front is too soft. Some other times because it's too stiff. Some other times it all depends what is actually happening. And in the middle of that, you have to add the aero package. The closer you are to the ground, the more grip you have. So you need a very stiff car. But the stiff car mechanically slides. So you need to figure out what you need to do to get into that perfect zone where you drive the car, where the car becomes an extra part of your body that you don't have to think about it anymore. And very few drivers can do that.
- [51:36]
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- [52:12]
Podcast Host
So for Isaac Hajar, who's now chosen to to do something that was a challenge for so many drivers before him, his job really isn't just to drive the car fast. It's to feed back on that car so he gets the car that he wants.
- [52:26]
Jacques Villeneuve
No, it's not just driving the car fast. If you get out there and testing and you do quali laps during a qualitap, you don't set the car up because you're driving on the edge. So you won't your, your focus, your brain power and all won't be won't be thinking about what is actually happening. You won't be feeling it. You'll feel the edge, but you won't Be feeling what is happening mechanically, how the car is moving. You see, when I was working with Jock Clear as I was driving, I could visualize how the car was moving around the dampers, the springs, what's happening. And every time was turning the wheel of brake, I think, ah, okay, this is going wrong because like the dampers are holding the car down. If this wasn't happening, the car would be reacting like that. I could drive it this way, then the next part of the corner would become better. And then, then it's like a puzzle that you keep adding to. Then you get out of the car and it's all there. But you don't have to explain it to engineer yet. It takes a while. It needs, you know, your subconscious has to do the work and then it comes out and you always have these ideas, thinking that's the issue. But maybe the issue is because of this and if we did this with that, it would make that other bit of the car that's not working working well and so on. And that's the discussions you need to have with the engineer. And then you look at the data so it can help you with what you've already felt and thought, not the other way around. Most drivers get out of the car, look at the data and then they have the answers, but they don't actually have the question. So the answer is give them the questions and oftentimes you'll see them going completely wrong direction. But that's the modern way of racing. Max is very old fashioned in that and I think Carlos as well, he'll use the data a lot, but he actually has a comprehension of what is happening to the car as he's driving. So every straight line, you assimilate it, then move on to the next corner and repeat to the next lap. So you can double check what I felt was that what really happened? So you arrive to that corner on the second lap prepared. So then you can really think about it.
- [54:18]
Podcast Host
A masterclass in how to make a car faster. If you were Isaac Hajar, would you have gone to Red Bull?
- [54:24]
Jacques Villeneuve
He didn't have a choice. He's a Red Bull driver. Red Bull decides which car the drivers drive. That's it. But ultimately you get an F1 to be with the best. Because how do you learn? By working alongside the best, by being beaten by them. Figuring out how and why they're beating you, then becoming better at their game. It's not easy, but if you want to be a world champ, if you want to be the real deal, that's what you have to do that. Might not be the best thing to have a long and fruitful and financially great career. But if you're getting an F1 because you're passionate, because you believe in yourself, because you know deep down that you are a world champion, that's what you have to do.
- [55:01]
Podcast Host
It's interesting though, isn't it, that everyone thinks Isaac Hajar was given the choice and chose to go and take Max on at Red Bull. And you're saying, no, no, no. They would have just said, next season you're in a Red Bull, right?
- [55:12]
Jacques Villeneuve
Well, look how often they change drivers. Once from Red Bull 1. In the racing ball, they just keep moving them around. And from what we've understood over the years, you're a Red Bull driver and you do whatever Red Bull tells you. Other than Max. Max is a special case because every team wants him. So he can do the contracts he wants. All the other drivers, you know, they're 18, 19, 20 years old. They get their racing financed. You sign whatever you're given. You're that age, you're in F1, you make money because you've had a good season in Formula 2. That doesn't happen to a lot of drivers. So when you're given that opportunity, you dive into. And then if you become like Max, then you decide what you want to sign, not before. Then you need to earn it first.
- [55:53]
Podcast Host
Look, it's very different situation for Lewis. But you joined bar. Lewis has gone to Ferrari.
- [55:59]
Jacques Villeneuve
No, I built bar. It's very different.
- [56:01]
Podcast Host
Okay, you built bar. You built bar, but you know, had some early challenges. First 11 races in 99 you retired from. You finished that first season with zero points. Lewis Hamilton, it's not that. But it's not been a great season at Ferrari for him. And one of my worries for Lewis is that so much of his self worth is built around being a Formula one driver that I worry how much of an impact this season has had on him. And I hope that he kind of realizes that he's so much more than just a guy that wins races.
- [56:30]
Jacques Villeneuve
You know, it's had a big impact because a lot of his championships were won against a teammate and there was no battle. Really, the one he had to fight was against Nico and he lost. Now he gets into Ferrari and he has to get back to his fighting ways. And it looks like he got used to the easy years. That's what I was talking about earlier. It's hard to get the diesel going again. If you just back off a bit or take it easy or think that it's easy. Once you start believing that you're untouchable, you slow down and that's where Max makes the difference. Even a season where Red Bull will win every race easily, he's on it as if that was the last race of the championship and he's behind in the points every single time. So when it becomes tough and he has to fight, he's used to it. Yeah. And I think that makes a big difference in the process that Lewis has been going through.
- [57:25]
Podcast Host
So how do you mean Lewis got used to the easy years?
- [57:28]
Jacques Villeneuve
Well, his championships weren't difficult to go and win. Mercedes was miles ahead once the new engine came in. And every time someone position became closed, they just turned off the power a bit. It was there in hand, ready, you know, like when you buy a phone, but you know they already have the next model. They're just waiting for people to buy this one. So they put the next one out. It's a little bit what happened with Mercedes. So it was only, only a Mercedes could have won at that point, almost with any driver on the grid at that point. Great. Then the battle was against your teammates. So the question is, what kind of teammates did he have? That's what we have. That's what you have to look at.
- [58:02]
Podcast Host
So where does Lewis sit for you then in the list of great drivers over the years?
- [58:07]
Jacques Villeneuve
That's a tough one because he's got all the records. Actually there's one I share with him, which I'm very proud of. But other than that, do you just look at the numbers or do you look at how those championships happened and then you quantify the good ones? That's the key to the matter. If you look at the Prostena era, they were the two greatest and they were fighting each other off, stealing championships from each other. Yes, they had the best car like Lewis had at Mercedes, but they were the two best drivers fighting each other off. So that gives it a lot of. Of credibility and value.
- [58:46]
Podcast Host
Yeah. The, the record you're referring to, I think that you share with Lewis is coming into Formula one and being the most successful rookie.
- [58:51]
Jacques Villeneuve
Right. Four win. No, it's most wins in a first season.
- [58:55]
Podcast Host
Yeah, yeah. Most wins in a first. Was it four wins?
- [58:58]
Jacques Villeneuve
I think so. It should have been five. I'm so upset about that.
- [59:03]
Podcast Host
I see I. Lewis down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest.
- [59:08]
Jacques Villeneuve
Right.
- [59:08]
Podcast Host
Because he came into Formula one and was fast immediately in, in his very first season. He then managed to win the title, obviously. Final lap of the final race and he Was up against Felipe Massa all season long. He kind of dealt really well with Fernando Alonso when Fernando was the master and he was a young guy. He can't help the fact that the Mercedes was an incredibly quick car. But he did everything that he had to do in that time to make sure he won the title. 2021. I'm sure we both agree that he should have been the world champion that year, deservedly, do you not? Lewis won the world title that year, apart from. And a really erroneous decision by.
- [59:49]
Jacques Villeneuve
No, no, no, no, no, I'm not involved. We'll get back to that.
- [59:53]
Podcast Host
I don't know how you, as a racer, don't think that Lewis should have won that world title. If it wasn't for Michael Masi's decision on the day, he would have been the world title.
- [60:01]
Jacques Villeneuve
No, actually what you forget is it's the work of a whole season, okay? It's not just that one race. He should have won it before that race. That was the issue. Max should never have been able to fight so hard at the end. But what everyone forgets is on lap one, Lewis cuts the chicane, steps on it, doesn't even try to slow down, and does not even get a penalty. That gives him the lead of the race. Without that, no lead of the race with a penalty. Then he's just five seconds behind Max anyway. So we don't even get to that point. So that's where the issue started. You can't just look at that moment where everything happened in chaos and happened quickly, where the team could have pitted Lewis and they chose not to. Yeah, so that. That's their decision. It was a gamble. They chose not to. Very simple. And then when you look at the restart, Lewis wasn't even fighting. It's as if he had decided, oh, I'm done, I'm beaten. And he wasn't even fighting. Okay, well, it looks bad because. Oh, they gave him the championship. No, they had the choice to pit and they didn't. Very simple. And on that first lap, that should have been a big penalty. Now they give 10 seconds for that. He didn't even try. Just didn't make the corner. Floored it and got out of the corner five seconds ahead, which gave him the lead, which then changed the whole rest of the race. So why can't people look at that as well? That's part of the whole race.
- [61:29]
Podcast Host
Very interesting. I could talk about it for a long time. Who is your rookie of 2025, the year when great appeared, Behrmann appeared There were some brilliant drivers. And as someone who was one of the greatest rookies we've ever seen, I'm interested in your opinion.
- [61:47]
Jacques Villeneuve
It's a tough one because it's changed during the season. Like, there's a moment where I was thinking, okay, it's Bortoletto, then Agile, then Bayerman. And it keeps switching in between those three because they're the three who aren't in a. Great, In a big team, Antonelli is in a Mercedes. So you can't compare him to the other, other two drivers. You can only compare him to his teammate. Bortoletto had a great middle of the season. He started a little bit low, was learning from, from Hulkenberg, getting better and better. Then the last few races, Last race he started making a few mistakes, crashed. But he shows a lot of potential and he seems to be very serious. A job was hit and miss. He had some crazy, crazy. It's a very Red Bull way now. Very aggressive, some crazy races. I mean, some races, well, wow, where did that come from? Then some other races where he was behind Lawson. So if he can keep that special momentum going, and it was only his first season, so if he gets that, keeps that momentum going, he's, he's in the perfect team. Red Bull with his attitude, it works well, it probably wouldn't have worked in the McLaren, for example. The approach is different. You know, he's, he's a very spirited driver, very emotional, he's cool and he's quick. So he needs to always be in this top game. Bearman started, go that little dip, but then suddenly became super impressive again because he was next to a very experienced teammate and he really got some amazing results. And he has good racecraft. He's got good spatial awareness, he can read the race quite well, which you don't see in every driver. You can see it when he makes his moves, when he goes to overtake. He really has a good, good racecraft. So I wouldn't know how to choose how to pick in between those three. It's, it's, it's, it's a tough one, but if you think about it, Barman is a Ferrari driver just waiting for a seat to become available there. Great. Although the team will not really be a Ferrari team next anymore because Toyota is getting more and more involved in the team. So at some point this will stop. Bortoletto will be with Audi, so that's now an official big team with really great people around. So he won't be in a small team anymore. And Agile, he'll be with Red Bull. So those four rookies of this year will all be in top teams next year. So it will be very interesting to see who has made the step from being a rookie to an actual racer. Full on. I'm an F1 driver and I'm not a rookie anymore. I'm not making those mistakes. I'm really there to go and win the championship. They will all be in that position to really show how they've evolved, and that will be super interesting to watch.
- [64:28]
Podcast Host
I can't wait. Jacques, I've loved this conversation with you because I watched from afar you not just driving brilliantly in Formula one, but I loved it when I was a young kid. I would have been 17 growing up, and you were like, outspoken. You said exactly what you thought. You took no prisoners. Like, no one spoke out against the FIA back in your day. No one turned up in the paddock wearing anything other than team clothing and suddenly there was this like, rock star guy rocking up. And I think a lot of people feel the same that you like, you brought a real energy to Formula one, and it's lovely to have the chance to, to sit and talk to you. I've got a couple of quick predictions to ask you, but before we get to that, for people that listen to this podcast, it's called High Performance. Right? And you've done so many amazing things in your life, both as a parent, as a partner, as a racing driver. How would you like to leave people thinking about what high performance is and how they can find high performance in their own life?
- [65:20]
Jacques Villeneuve
That it's actually good to be off the beaten path, basically, because that's how you hone in. Most of your skills, like all my racing came from skiing and playing ice hockey. I didn't do karting, but it taught me skiing mainly. Well, those two taught me about spatial awareness, 3D space, what's around you mostly in ice hockey, and that's kind of very useful. In racing, your gut tells you there's a car next to you that you don't always see. You kind of feel it. So that really helps the racing. I found skiing also super helpful. To corner, to change lines, to adapt lines, not to go straight for the apex and to sacrifice a corner to be quick in the other one. You need to do that in skiing and you kind of feel a medium under your feet. And how do you use that to create more speed? That was always super useful, then transferring it to setting a car up. And it also helped to drive. When we're driving in the Wet, completely blind. Because when it's snowing, it's a wide end, you're still racing. And skis, well, you go by feel, you don't see anything. You see a pole, a few colors here and there. And the other amazing thing that I found from skiing that I realized lately, and that's something, we did that because we did it at bar, which was very interesting. It dissociates your medium for where you look at and where you want to go. I mean, your skis could be pointing anywhere. You don't care. You just know you want to go somewhere. And you dissociate the two in a cart, you get sideways, your arms go this way, so you can see visually. So you're getting sideways. And some people panic. The same thing happens in a car because of the visually, you see what's happening. So skiing helped that. So what I had done at var, I was wanting to have instead of a steering wheel, to have like a tank, thinking that'd be useful because then you can sit in the car, not moving around. It'll be even safer. So they built a go kart like that. And it was quick. It was actually supernatural to drive. But the funny thing is you didn't care anymore if you're sideways or not. It didn't matter, just like on skis. So I think that was also a very good schooling, but being of the beaten path, because if you only stick to what people you have to do this, this, these are the next step. You'll be molded, and you will never, ever be able to adapt or to figure out by yourself, you know, without coaching, without just by yourself how to become better. What can you change to make that tiny little step. Because sometimes you're on top of the hill, you know, you're the best, but there's always someone out there that will somehow beat you. So how do you react to that? And when that happens, you think, oh, I need to find another 10th now. I need to figure out how to go get that tenth. And somehow you find a way. That's how you build it up. And it's also as a kid, playing games, playing games and always wanting to win, but fairly. And it's okay to lose. You just have to understand why you have lost. And another key thing I've noticed is always try to point the finger at yourself, always take the blame, because somehow you might have been able to avoid that crash, even though you were in your right. And had you avoided that crash, you. You would have won the race. So you have to think about that something that happened, I think was racing in Austria and that Jali behind me, he was in the Sauber at the time. I could see him in his. In my mirrors and he was. I could see, okay, he's aggressive. He's like, he's going for it. So I just let him by thinking, it's okay. In 10 laps you will crash with someone. So I will gain a position. And that's exactly what happened. Had I fought him, I probably would have crashed with him. So sometimes you have to understand how you can learn from losing and how you can make situations your responsibility, even if they're not fully. That's the only way you can improve. It's not easy to do. It's easy to point the finger and everyone tells you, oh, he did this to you, he took you out. And so on and so on. Sometimes it's 100% clear. There's nothing you can do. Someone didn't break and just rammed you. There's nothing you can do. But always try to find a way. How could I have made the situation better so I could have profited from her? So then you turn it back onto yourself. That's the only way to make progress. And you were talking about the 99 bar that you almost didn't we. No points and so on. And that was one of those seasons. Okay, how do we not give up? How do we. And every time you come back and you still try and oftentimes we're running ahead of Michael top six. But yes, the car broke down every time. And when it didn't break, we would finish eighth, which back then was, wow, what a bunch of losers. Today you finished eighth. Wow, you're so amazing. You got some points. So I think it's just a question of perception.
- [69:56]
Podcast Host
Thank you for joining us. Some one word quick fire questions. Who will be the 2026 driver world champion?
- [70:05]
Jacques Villeneuve
No idea. We have this new rule set now that it's so. It's so left field, it's so out there. Engine car, but also no drs. But there's. There's so many things that will change how drivers race, how the strategy will pan out.
- [70:21]
Podcast Host
Fernando Alonso, he's still got it.
- [70:24]
Jacques Villeneuve
Give him a little carrot.
- [70:25]
Podcast Host
An Adrian Newey car with the money from Lawrence Stroll, driven by Fernando Alonso. My pick for 2026.
- [70:33]
Jacques Villeneuve
But you see, we're talking about passion earlier and why you race. It's not age. You might slow down the tent because maybe you won't take that risk or something, but you'll overcompensate with your experience and your hunger, if the hunger is still going, if you're racing for the right reasons and he's raced a little bit in everything. He loves racing, he's a pure passionate, then he's still willing to make all the sacrifice to go at it and he'll still be better than, than the 2/3 of the grid because he has that hunger, he has that passion on top of the talent and everything.
- [71:04]
Podcast Host
So let's agree then, Fernando Alonso to be the world champion in 2026.
- [71:07]
Jacques Villeneuve
Right.
- [71:09]
Podcast Host
With very limited information at the moment.
- [71:11]
Jacques Villeneuve
Well, not normally. Adrian is very good at new rules. Definitely.
- [71:16]
Podcast Host
I got, someone told me that the data coming out of the wind tunnel they think is incredible.
- [71:23]
Jacques Villeneuve
Yeah. But they don't have the data of the other wind tunnels. So everything might be thinking like maybe the rule set gives you, you know, a sheet of paper that has amazing downforce for everyone. So they'll come out of their wind tunnel now thinking, oh wow, we've won this, we're amazing. But maybe they're all at that same amazing level and everyone is thinking the same with Mercedes engine because when the hybrids came in, Mercedes was we're a step ahead. Yeah, well that's not the hybrids coming in, it's just the hybrid being adapted so everyone knows how to make them.
- [71:54]
Podcast Host
Let's see. It's hard to predict until we've seen the car.
- [71:57]
Jacques Villeneuve
That's why it's exciting. Any of the 10, 10 teams or 11? No, maybe not 11, not the new team because they have a lot to. But any of those 10 teams can be the force next year. That's what's super cool. Great.
- [72:08]
Podcast Host
Well, look, Jacques, thank you so much for what you did as a driver, what you do now as a pundit. Thanks for joining us on Hyper for Performance.
- [72:14]
Jacques Villeneuve
Thank you very much.
- [72:18]
Podcast Host
Hey, wasn't that an interesting conversation? So I recorded that chat with Jack in my study at home. He was actually in his house in Italy, he was about to head off to the mountains and he kindly gave us over an hour of his time, not just to reflect on the Formula one season just gone, but to give us some amazing insights into his time as a world champion. And I thought most interestingly of all, revealing that he is just as opinionated and just as vociferous as he has ever been. I mean, what about his thoughts about Lewis Hamilton? And look, I'm not going to say that he's wrong and I'm right or that he's changed my mind about whether Lewis Hamilton is an eight time Formula one world Champion. But the fact that Jacques isn't scared to voice his opinion right, I believe is one of the reasons why he made it in motorsport. But as he said, he's also, along the way, had to really learn to deal with the trauma of losing his dad at a young age and the fact that really in him it kind of, it lit a fire, it got something going that maybe is the reason why he is the Formula one World Champion. So there was so much in that conversation. I hope that it acted as a really good review of the 2025 Formula One season. It certainly did for me. I love just going back and talking about a few things. And when you speak to someone who's actually not just been behind the wheel, but been behind the wheel in F1, fought with some of the greats and won a world title like, there's a reason why when Jacques Villeneuve talks, you listen. And you've just had the chance to listen to that. So thank you so much for tuning in. Don't forget, if you can just hit subscribe or follow wherever you're listening to this, whatever app you're using, it makes a massive difference to us and I look forward to sharing plenty more conversations with you into 2026. Thanks for listening.
- [74:20]
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- [74:50]
Jacques Villeneuve
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