Villeneuve enjoys pub lunch
November 29, 2009 by mark h
Filed under People & Events
I know what you’re thinking, but – sadly – this isn’t the Canadian equivalent of a Juan Pablo Montoya Tweet describing some tasty morsel of meat.
Jacques Villeneuve has been spied in East Anglia, enjoying a pub lunch with “a Lotus executive” at the – perhaps aptly-named – Bird in Hand, a Norfolk pub a few miles away from Lotus’s Hethel Headquarters. Local paper the Norwich Evening News (or more likely one of their readers) spied the 1997 World Champion enjoying a fillet steak.
Pub manageress Lizzie Brake said his arrival at the watering hole at about 1pm surprised guests and staff alike.
She said: “It was quite a surprise. We all got his autographs. He was here for about one and a half hours, and we think he left to go back to Lotus.
“He was with another Canadian, an American and a lady from Lotus. He had a fillet steak.”
…snip…
A Group Lotus spokesman told the Evening News: “We do not comment about any guest visits to Lotus, particularly private ones.”
The article goes on to reiterate what we already know – Mike Gascoyne has stated publicly that he has talked with Villeneuve, Villeneuve has responded in kind, but insisted that discussions are “preliminary” at the moment.
And now we know that they have met again.
So, are we slipping into the twilight zone? Does JV really have a Bird in Hand? Or, with USF1 still on the lookout, could he even have two in the bush? And which is better?
Loading ...
I would be very surprised if we see JV on the grid again, seems even more unlikely than the return of MS (a fantasy some people want to believe). He was never competitive unless he was in the Williams, which was the dominant team of his era. Despite the fact that he has resumed his physical training regimen, he had better be happy with a testing role, because that is all he is going to get.
Here’s another tip of information too.
JV is good buddies with Gino Rosato, Lotus Team’s new corporate affairs vice-president. Gino has been working in F1 for a long time. To my knowledge, he is the only Quebecois (from Laval, Montréal’s twin island) to have held an important job in F1 for the past 10-15 years. I think he was head of logistics at Ferrari or something. (+ he was usually the guy holding Michael’s helmet during podium celebrations !!!)
So maybe, just maybe, this ‘factory visit’ was perhaps just a friendly ‘take-a-look-at-my-new-place’ get-together among 2 old buddies.
Time will tell. I guess.
Ever the optimist!
No. I was saying we shouldn’t probably read too much into this ‘visit’. That’s all.
On the other hand, I’m in the process of watching the 1999 season for the first time (ie. BAR’s rookie season), and JV is making quite an impression on me. His point tally in books I’ve read shows a pointed ZERO. But man, he really did have a few great races. Some solid qualis too. I had no idea about that. So in my book, he doesn’t suck all that much anymore. Cheers to that JV !!!
Entropy, I know you were telling us not to read too much into the visit — that’s the optimism! The pessimist thinks we’re going to see JV again. :)
Got it.
Haha. JV was washed up a decade ago. He’s NOT coming back to F1.
Haha jacques will be back
Twitterville rumors have him seated at Lotus…which makes little sense to me.