Jacques Villeneuve soon at the wheel of an F1

Jacques Villeneuve will celebrate 25 years of his Formula 1 world title at the wheel of a single-seater in the Alps next week at Monza.

This was revealed by the Motorsport website on Monday. On Wednesday 14 September, aboard the Alpine A521 that entered the championship last year, Villeneuve will paddle on Italian asphalt.

JV, 51, is currently working as an analyst during the Grand Prix reporting for France’s Canal +, and it’s also through this test that he gets to see the light of day.

Quebec, who was crowned champion in 1997 with Williams – who was backed by Reanult – also maintains ties with the team at Enstone. In particular, he competed in three races with Renault in 2004, replacing Jarno Trulli.

“It was done thanks to the links with Canal+, the French team and French TV, and I won 25 years ago with Renault. So that’s the reason. But it will be last year’s car at Monza, real laps. I’ve been in three Grand Prixes with the,” Villeneuve told Motorsport. Fernando, so I have a past with this team, and Alan Berman [aujourd’hui directeur sportif] He was my engineer.

new reality

Villeneuve ended his Formula 1 career in 2006 when he was replaced by Robert Kubica at BMW Sauber. He acknowledges that technology has come a long way since then, but he doesn’t expect to struggle too much with the complexity of contemporary single seating. Nor with physical limitations.

“It’s so exciting, it’s crazy! It would also be good to understand these cars. I did the simulation. The modern single-seater seats aren’t that impressive at low speeds, but they’re amazing at high speeds. I just have to make sure I have a good bucket. It would be Hell, because the superpowers would be incredible. The good side is that there is a long straight line, so we can recover physically!”

That test will come a few days after the Italian Grand Prix, which is scheduled for this weekend.