Question: Tell us what you’ve learned so far in a day and a half, driving the Car of Tormorrow here in Texas?
JACQUES VILLENEUVE: It’s definitely a different beast than the truck to drive. More speed down the straight. Corners more speed, have to slow down. It’s very different to drive and it’s very difficult to drive.
And the tires drop off quite quickly as well. So to get your best lap out, you really have to go out hard and try to figure out a lot of things at the same time. So it’s tough. But it’s fun. So progress every time and that’s what matters.
Question: Can you talk about the brush with the wall today, what happened and also did running the trucks help you the last couple of days?
JACQUES VILLENEUVE: First of all, with the truck, they drive very differently, because you carry the throttle all the way into the corner, just lift a little bit. Slower down the straight quicker around the corner. It drives very differently, different lines through the corner. Not a huge help.
The brush with the wall, yesterday we ended up running the high line and brushed the wall with the rear of the car a few times. Seemed like it was okay. The car was tighter today, went in fast like yesterday and didn’t turn. So used the wall to cushion to turn, which was okay, didn’t really do any damage. But that’s not the way to go.
Question: If you could just kind of give your impressions of Montoya’s rookie season and what kind of benchmark or expectations do you think he’s maybe created for you?
JACQUES VILLENEUVE: Juan Pablo did a great rookie season, without any stock car experience. And after having driven one now, it’s obvious to me anyway how difficult a job it is and how good he’s done.
Question: Do you think the big adjustment for you might be the schedule and the demands for time, 38 weekends a year to race and all the other things that go on being a Cup driver?
JACQUES VILLENEUVE: The schedule is demanding, obviously, but I don’t think it’s any worse than what I’ve been used to and one where there was less racing but a lot more testing, and with overseas flight going to Australia and all that, it made it very difficult. So I don’t see that as a negative. If anything, when you’re in the car you’d rather be racing than testing anyway.
Question: How much of your former fan base do you expect will follow you to NASCAR?
JACQUES VILLENEUVE: I guess the ones in Europe might find it a little difficult because it’s not easy to see NASCAR in Europe. But I know I’ve been chatting with people on forums. Some of them have got set up to be able to see what was going on. There’s a fan base in Canada obviously being Canadian, and after having raced in the states and in IndyCar and winning the Indy 500, there was a fan base in the states. So hopefully this will carry on.
Source: NASCAR.com
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