Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, the 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner and the 1997 Formula One World Champion, is set to get his first taste of the Sauber-Petronas that he and his Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa will race in 2005.
Fans in North America will have two chances to see Villeneuve, 33, and Massa, 23, compete this season with a Formula One double-header consisting of the Canadian Grand Prix on June 12 in Montreal and the United States Grand Prix on June 19 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“It will be great,” Villeneuve said of getting the chance to race again in North America. “There are always great memories of Indianapolis, and Montreal is my home race.”
“During the tests at the end of last year I got a very good impression of both the C23 and the team,” Villeneuve said. “I’m extremely motivated and determined to support Sauber-Petronas in moving ahead further.”
Villeneuve made his F1 debut with Williams-Renault in 1996. He won four times that season and then won seven times in 1997 and was World Champion. He drove for BAR from 1999-2003 and then sat out most of the 2004 season before making a comeback in the last three races with Renault. He has a contract with Sauber for 2005 and 2006.
This will be Massa’s third season with Sauber. Brazilian-born Massa made his F1 debut in 2002 with Sauber, spent 2003 working as a test driver for Ferrari, and returned to action with Sauber in 2004.
“No other team improved as much during the course of last year as Sauber-Petronas did,” Massa said. “If we manage to take this momentum with us into the new season, a few people will be in for a surprise.”
Massa is looking forward to teaming up with Villeneuve this season.
“For me, it is very nice having Jacques as a teammate,” Massa said. “He’s a World Champion, and it will be interesting for me to have a teammate like this. I’m looking forward to it, hope to do a good job and to be competitive. To be in front of him would be fantastic for me.”
Sauber-Petronas finished in sixth place in the 2004 Constructors World Championship.
“Our goal is to further reduce the gap between ourselves and the front-runners,” Team Principal Peter Sauber said. “Yet to what extent this will impact on the results cannot be predicted at the moment. We won’t have any indications as to how well the individual teams have managed to adjust to the new regulations until after the season opener at Melbourne.”
The 19-race season begins with the Australian Grand Prix on March 6.
Sauber’s new state-of-the-art wind tunnel played an important role in the development of the C24, which features a radical-looking dual front wing. The 2005 technical regulations initially cut aerodynamic downforce by about 25 percent.
“Of course, this has made us focus special attention on aerodynamics,” Technical Director Willy Rampf said. “Our experience with the C23 had clearly shown the significant influence of the sidepods and the rear bodywork on aerodynamics. That’s why the continuation of our development was consistently directed towards these areas, in which we have designed the car to be even more compact and harmonious.
“In the course of last year, the C23 revealed major development potential, so it was a logical step to base the C24’s concept on that of its predecessor. Changes were made wherever we were able to identify opportunities for improvement.”
The C24 is powered by the Petronas 05A engine, which is basically the same V10 used by Ferrari. Sauber designed its gearbox for the C24 rather than using a Ferrari unit as it did in 2004.
After many seasons with Bridgestone, Sauber has switched to Michelin tires.
“We expect a measurable improvement from this change and have certainly seen the first indications of this during initial test drives last year,” Sauber said.
