Jacques Villeneuve Quotations

With my father and uncle so involved in racing, it was the only thing I ever knew, so I'm sure that had a huge influence on me. However, my father had more influence on me just by the way he lived, because the way he was at the racetrack was the way he was in everyday life.

Ultimately, the best driver will always do something special, whatever the rules and whatever the regulations. Same thing with the teams.

My goal is not to be a race-car driver. The reason I'm racing is because I enjoy being in the car and being on the edge.

I would rather have racing without computers. The human side is forgotten, and instead of talking over what's happening and just trusting the feel of the driver, the data becomes almost more important.

I am having fun with my driving again and enjoying going to the limit.

I am stupidly passionate about music; it has become a bit of drug. I buy tons of CDs and spend days listening to each and every one, putting notes on every song to know which tracks are good so that when I do my little MP3 collection, I know which songs to include.

I'm always taken aback by the affection that this area shows toward my father. I feel the affection too.

I'm a racer at heart more than anything else, and that will always be my priority: competing. But ultimately, if you can't drive, you can still have the competitive spirit outside of a car.

I'm a purist, and I love the sport. I loved the '60s and '70s, when the fans even enjoyed the races where only four cars finished, and they were two laps apart.

I love a lot of high speed turns, turns where you have to push yourself, force yourself to go fast. Then there's something telling your foot to lift off, because it's so fast, and it's impressive when you get that feeling and just drive on.

I hate it when politics play too large part in the sport.

Friday is pointless. It's not really a fair thing for the fans or the teams. I'm not a big fan.

I don't understand the concept of always trying to make F1 go slower and slower and slower and have less and less power.

He doesn't seem to have the personality for a No. 2: He is a fighter. He's not one who will just accept being behind. He is still progressing, and Ferrari can only be good for him.

He should give up motorbikes and join us.

Starting from 19th place with a full tank and finishing sixth is obviously a lot better than I expected, so it was a very good race for me. The only problem I had was warming up the tires after the numerous safety car phases. We have to have a look at this to improve the situation but otherwise our pace was good.

I was happy to ski and play a lot of ice hockey. But I've come back because I was - and am - a racing driver. This is what I do.

I think it was wrong to take the decision to slow F1 down. It was much better in my day, when it was already a lot safer than it had been in the '70s and '80s, but you could still drive crazy fast.

That was a pretty bad lap, ... The car was just sliding around all over the place.

Winning the Indy 500 in 1995 and the Formula 1 championship in 1997 are very special moments for me, and the people in NASCAR show me respect for what I've achieved so far in my career.

Unlike motor sport, I didn't get into music for the live performances. I like writing and studio work and seeing how a song can come to life.

The problem is if you spend too many years in a car that can't win, the day you're in one that can, you're not used to it, so it will have an effect.

Winning is still the reason that I drive in formula one. And the title, as well. I'm not here just to be part of it. I haven't forgotten how to win.

F1 is giving penalties for people making mistakes instead of for people driving dirty. And that is wrong. Mistakes happen. You run into each other: that's life, that's racing, and too bad.

Both Indy Car and Formula 1 work in the same way, although there is a greater emphasis on development and technology in Formula 1.

Between 1999 and 2004, I experienced firsthand the difficulties and complexities involved in setting up a new team. But I've never been afraid of a challenge.

Everybody just uses the one-move rule without realising when it is too late to actually move and cross over and when it is actually being dangerous.

Everything bad about France was transferred to Quebec.

Conserving fuel is fine, and it was great in the past. The problem is that the drivers don't have to do it. It's all done electronically. You sit there, and it saves fuel for you, and that defeats the purpose.

Some younger drivers didn't grow up seeing racing as being dangerous. They break their little finger, and they are surprised. It's like, 'Be happy it's only that.'

Normally the good teams stay in front when there is a regulation change, the teams that do the most testing and have the most budget end up adapting fastest. From pre-Christmas testing it's very difficult to know because not every team was running with V8s, so it's really impossible to know where anybody stands at the moment.

Spa is a great track! I've got memories of some adventures there, though it's never been lucky for me. It's definitely a track where you can feel stronger than the rest if you go through the corners flat. It's one of the last high-speed circuits that we have and it's a very long lap.

You need to let the drivers go for it, and if they bang wheels, too bad. It's fun, it's a good show, the fans are up in the grandstands, and they can scream and shout about it... that's good; that's what you want.

A lot of people say when you have kids, you slow down. I want my kids to see me race.

Ask me about the challenge of becoming as good at music as I am at motorsport, and I have to say: my career has been racing, and I don't plan on music becoming my next career.

It's sad that you don't see drivers being real people.

Everybody has fallen asleep on the fact that F1 is dangerous. They all think it's a video game, and it's not. It is very, very dangerous, and it's tough.

I want to race in formula one for a lot longer.

At the first corner everybody was going four abreast so I backed off a little,

The feeling I got from rallycross was a little bit more of the NASCAR aspect of it; it's a family of races where racing is a passion, and it's not the politics that come with it.

The fans come. They don't care about the third drivers.

If Michael really felt that Rubens deserved the win, all he had to do was slow down and cross the line in second place, ... Ferrari wouldn't have done anything against him.

I had to back off on one lap near the end because of yellow flags, but that happened while we were on a long run so it wasn't really a problem and I did my best lap on the next one, which was my last. The grip was getting better all day, having been very low to begin with this morning. We still have some set-up work to do, but it was okay.

I'm competitive, but that doesn't stop me from being realistic.

I don't think that American drivers going to NASCAR are taking the easy way out because as I said, the racing is amazing; it's just that it's easier to adapt to what you grow up with. American drivers grow up with NASCAR, they know NASCAR, and that's where they want to go.

If I knew I couldn't win races, I would have stayed in the States.

I don't like people telling me what to do. I'm very independent.

All these corporations don't want their drivers to ruin their image, so you can't say what you think. You're basically not allowed to have a personality. How can you have any heroes if you don't allow personalities?