Sauber,BAR? Villeneuve, Button? Opciones

[RSW]

http://www.sportnetwork.net/main/s169/st69976.htm
Exclusive: Jacques Villeneuve to return to BAR
By Shirley Knot - April 1 2005

In an unpredicted move, Jacques Villeneuve has revealed that he will be returning to Lucky Strike BAR Honda, replacing Jenson Button who in turn moves on to take the lead driver role at Sauber Petronas.

Commenting on the deal, Jacques said "Coming back to BAR is a bit like coming home." There's no doubt that some other forces played their part, though. "After the changes that happened within BAR over the winter, I feel respect from the team once more.

"I have to respectfully thank Peter [Sauber] for his belief and respect over the last four months. His plan to rejuvenate the team, and the wider field of F1 generally, is one I respect and support."

The deal to bring Jacques back to the team where he managed to score 39 points was a joint effort between BAR chief Nick Fry and Sauber boss Peter Sauber.

Nick Fry explains: "The team saw that Jacques has struggled to remain competitive since leaving the team in 2003. His time at Renault and Sauber, while imperfect situations, showed that he needs to return to BAR to make the most of his obvious talents."

Included in the package is Felipe Massa, who many suspected could take over BAR's third driver role. However, Peter Sauber has cleared that up, saying "we've invested a lot into Felipe's development, and didn't want to see his career stall in a season's testing. Therefore we've agreed with BAR that he will take over Takuma Sato's role."

Takuma Sato will naturally follow Jenson Button to Sauber, filling in the now vacant second driver role. Anthony Davidson is expected to follow suit, with Sauber keen on running a third car.

The swap also sees some commercial benefits, with Sauber sponsors Credit Suisse and Petronas moving over to the Brackley based team. In deference to their new sponsors, the team will start the San Marino Grand Prix painted in the blue and green colours of Petronas, with white areas for Credit Suisse.

Disappointed at the loss of exposure, BAR sponsors Lucky Strike and Honda will move to the Sauber team, with the Swiss outfit presenting third car in a mainly white livery, with red, olive and black banding on the engine cover.

With the new engine rules for 2005 making customer engines (theoretically) cheaper, Honda have also taken the unprecedented move of providing Sauber with a supply of current spec engines.

Ferrari, keen to retain their income stream following Sauber's surprise dropping of their customer engines, have inked a deal with BAR to replace the Honda engines. Funded by new sponsor Petronas, the engines will be badged as Petronas rather than Ferrari units.

Given the new working partnerships, BAR will relocate from their current Brackley base to Switzerland. Finding a suitable site will be a difficult task, but the team have already earmarked a site in Hinwil, complete with a state of the art wind tunnel.

Sauber, keen to emphasise their desire to move up the rankings in Formula One, have already agreed a deal to purchase BAR's now vacant premises in Brackley.

In a bid to keep marketing budgets as reasonable as possible, both teams have agreed that their drivers will be able to retain their current driver numbers, giving Lucky Strike Sauber Honda the sought after number 3 and 4, while now Swiss based BAR Petronas take over 11 and 12.

Finally, the two team managers appreciated each others efforts so much that a name change was organised. The now Brackley based Sauber Honda team will be rebranded as Brilliant And Respectful, or BAR for short.

BAR, for their part, will pay their respect to Peter Sauber, without whom the whole deal could not go through, by renaming the team as Sauber.

Assuming that the contracts are cleared by all the relevant legal teams, within a matter of weeks we could see Sauber Petronas from Switzerland on the grid with drivers Jacques Villeneuve (#11) and Felipe Massa (#12), and Lucky Strike BAR Honda, now based at Brackley, with drivers Jenson Button (#3) and Takuma Sato (#4).

Stranger things have happened.

[`]

Parece una inocentada de esas que se hacen al cumplir 200 GPS...

[Cesc]

Yo también lo creo...
No tiene ningún sentido algo así

[Arrows76]

Inocentada fijo, sino la f1 está más loca de lo que pensaba.

[memo]

Hoy es 1 de abril, o sea, si no recuerdo mal, es el All Fools Day o algo asi, los "Santos Inocentes" guiris.

[Raquel]

¿Pero no ere el domingo pasado el día de "Los Santos Inocentes" guiris??
Alguien lo comentó -no recuerdo- cuando empezó a salir a la luz la noticia de Pedro como posible sustito de Montoya..

[Raquel]

quote:

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PD. Yo he llegado a pensar al principio que fuera una broma, ya que el 1 de Abril para ellos es nuestro 28D, pero ya es imposible ¿no?.

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Fue PCA, en el topic de Pedro en Bahrein.
Perdón lo he confundido por "la fecha", lo dijo el domingo PCA.

[AMAROK]

Sí, el 1 de abril es el April fools... los Santos Inocentes, vaya.

Aún siendo coña, tanto machacar a Villeneuve es exagerado. Es menos querido que Van Gaal.

HEALTH WARNING:
This record could be hazardous to the health of cloth-eared nincompoops. If you suffer from this condition, consult your doctor immediatly.

[WoLoLoOo]

¿que grannnn cambio seria no?

un piloto joven y rapido como es button por un piloto viejo lento y bocazas como es villeneuve, yo no dejaria escapar una oportunidad asi XDDDDDDDD

[Robjuan]

Parece que Villeneuve puede tener las horas contadas en Sauber. Esta mañana, en T5, comentaban que puede ser Klien quien le sustituya en sauber y Liuzzi coja el puesto de éste en Red Bull Racing. Pero, además, en el foro de AtlasF1 alguien ha comentado que el mismo Wurz pudiera ser el próximo inquilino del 2º coche de RBR. Me suena a pura conjetura u opinión, pero ahí queda eso...

S2 desde León.