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David Phillips
Editor and ChiefDavid Phillips is a long-time contributor to print and electronic publications in the U.S. and abroad, including Racer, Autosport, AutoWeek, Motor Sport and SPEEDtv.com, oversees the daily updating of news stories and assigns, edits and contributes feature material for inRacingNews.com.
Chris Hall
iRacing.com Series WriterChris Hall has been writing since the nineties and moved into motorsports reporting in 2005, covering series such as ALMS, British GT, FIA GT, Le Mans and 2CV racing for Full Throttle magazine, Motorsport.com, The-Paddock.net, GTGateway.com, L' Endurance and, of course, inRacingNews. During 2008 and 2009, he worked with the RSS Performance Porsche Carrera Cup Team (and former British GT(C) champions) as a data engineer for a variety of drivers and models of 997s.
Jameson Spies
Contributing Writer19 years old, Jameson Spies lives in Quartz Hill, California. He grew-up surrounded by racing. His mother raced late models throughout Southern California while his father built and setup the car. Not surprisingly, Jameson began racing go-karts at the age of 13, and is now racing Spec Trucks at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He has a passion about all forms of racing and hopes to make a career out of it.
Jason Lofing
iRacing.com Series WriterJason is 21 years old and was born and raised in Elk Grove. California. A big time NASCAR fan, he hasn’t missed a race on Sunday in years. Lofing is also a huge San Fransisco Giants fan and tries to take in at least a couple games a year. Other than sim racing, his biggest (and far more expensive!) hobby is photography. Although he is rather new to sim racing, Lofing has already accomplished some pretty impressive results, qualifying for the 2011 iRacing Oval Pro Series in Season 1, 2011, winning the inaugural Landon Cassill Qualifying Challenge and finishing runner-up in the second one.
Ray Bryden
Technical contributorRay grew up in Nova Scotia, which means he’s a hockey nut, but in Nova Scotia’s two non-winter months he had to find other diversions, which meant watching F1 racing on weekends with his dad and brothers. Without the resources to get started in racing, he gravitated to computer versions of racing – first Atari games like Pole Position, followed by PC racing games like Indianapolis 500: The Simulation. Dozens of others came and went, until Grand Prix Legends came along and he decided sim-racing was his official hobby. Years were spent enjoying this both offline and online until a few years of fatherhood took priority. When free-time reappeared he heard about iRacing and signed up in 2008 and became so involved in the service that he wrote one of the first books on the subject of sim-racing, iRacing Paddock. When not writing for inRacingNews.com, his main occupation is as a research associate with Saint-Gobain working on advanced ceramic materials.
Patrick Atherton
Contributing WriterPatrick Atherton, originally from Adelaide in the state of South Australia, currently resides just outside of Melbourne, Victoria with wife of 17 years and 3 kids. A business manager by profession, but also dabbles with blogging, cartooning and fine art, having been published both as a writer in a short-lived South Australian motorsport yearbook and later as a cartoonist in a niche trade magazine. At the age of 19 he competed in club circuit events in an Austin Healey Sprite, later indulging in sprint karts between 1994 and 2000. Following the move to the State of Victoria he raced Road Race Karts (“Superkarts” as they are known in Australia) in the popular Rotax class, competing at Phillip Island, Oran Park, Mallala, Wakefield Park, Eastern Creek, Calder Park, Sandown and Winton. It was during this time he met former Australian F2 champion and inventor of Australia’s first, and most prolific race simulator rig, Jon Crooke. This culminated in an introduction to Papyrus’ legendary NR2003 simulation, and the subsequent sim racing addiction which brought him to iRacing.
Tim Terry
Contributing WriterTim Terry, aka the voice of Maritime stock car racing, fell in love with sim racing in 2004 after he joined the Sim Racing Network crew as a pit reporter. From October 2004 to SRNtv’s closure in June 2007, he’s covered prestigious races and leagues such as the Online 500, FLM Fall 400, Real Racing Online and the DMP Racing League – each as the lead broadcaster for the company. At the same time the wheels started to turn in another direction as he began announcing stock car racing locally. Terry became the assistant announcer at Scotia Speedworld in May 2007 and took over full duties in May 2009 when long-time voice Mike Kaplan retired from the track. Terry also became the series voice of the Parts For Trucks Pro Stock Tour in ’09 and continues to hold down both posts in 2011. He has also announced races for the Pro All Stars Series, Atlantic Open Wheel and Maritime League of Legends tours and has called races at six different Atlantic Canadian tracks. Terry can be heard online at WebRacingNetwork.com, RLMtv.com and OLRtv.com covering sim races. He also makes occasional appearances on PSRtv.com. In addition to inRacingNews, his articles and columns can be read on ScotiaSpeedworld.ca, MaritimeProStockTour.com and his own website at timterryonline.com.
David Allen
Contributing WriterNorth Carolina born and raised with over 15 years of computer/IT experience, I combine two of my biggest hobbies -- racing and technology -- here at inRacingNews. In my spare time I run a Nascar fan site and cure my own need for speed riding atvs. If it involves technology or racing I'll be there, but combine the two and I'll be looking a front row seat. Stop by and say hello anytime!
Allen Krier
Contributing WriterAllen was born in West Palm Beach, Florida but grew up in Atlanta and attended Georgia College and State University where he received a BS in Information Systems. Currently a resident of Albany, GA, he started sim racing in 2008 while in college when iRacing was first released to the public. Since then, Krier has been a two time iRacing Pro Series driver (2009 and 2010), picking up one Pro Series win at Daytona in ‘09. Besides sim racing, Allen’s other hobbies include RC Car racing as well as “attending and watching any sporting event that I can including going to the local dirt track.
Q and A with Jacques Villeneuve
September 30th, 2009
After three years away, 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve is deadly serious about making another Formula 1 return in 2010 – and attended last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix to continue his negotiations with teams.
AUTOSPORT heard from Villeneuve on how things were progressing, and what he thinks about F1 2009.
Q. So what brought you to Singapore?
Jacques Villeneuve: Just continuing my work on getting back to Formula 1. It’s very simple. I didn’t want to go to Monza because it is always a crazy weekend and I was told it would be a lot calmer here. I wanted to see this track anyway – it is one that is definitely worth coming to, so it has been a good experience.
Q. Are you planning on going on to Suzuka as well?
JV: No. I have kids to take care of.
Q. But it is one of your old stomping grounds?
JV: Yeah, I know. Maybe Japan might have been more fun knowing the place well from the past, but I am not here to party of anything.
Q. How is progress going on your talks for next year? There were some quotes in the German newspapers last weekend saying you would definitely be back in F1?
JV: Definitely?
Q. Yes, that’s what they said…
JV: Oh wow! It is amazing. It is not good when there is stuff like that written, because it is not definitely. And, when it doesn’t happen, you then look like an idiot. So, I am not really in favour of this extreme positiveness unless it is real. There are possibilities, but there are a lot of drivers out there wanting to get in, and it seems that teams are much more desperate to get money than they were in the past. For some reason, although times are harder, every other driver seems to have money. That is really interesting.
Q. Do you have a budget?
JV: Nope. I didn’t work on getting a budget for F1. I was working on getting a budget for NASCAR and different things, and you cannot go to someone and say, ‘we will do this or that, or that, or that’. You need to focus on one area.
Q. Why do you want to come back to F1?
JV: Because I love racing. It is in my blood. I was born to race. There are two series in the world at the top level – F1 and NASCAR. I would say NASCAR I could do for many more years – Mark Martin is 51 and he is leading the championship. And you cannot beat an F1 car, in terms of driving the car. There is nothing that compares to it. So if there is a chance to do it, you have to do everything you can for it. And when I am home, I am either doing Motocross and doing stupid jumps, or go-karts, or whatever. That aspect is still there. I would be stupid not to try it, as I am really passionate about it.
Q. What do you miss about F1?
JV: The competition. The racing. Driving the cars on the limit. Also, working with the engineers to get the most out of the car. The mental work that goes into that is also part of the excitement and something I am missing.
Q. You did the Le Mans 24 Hours, was that so different?
JV: It was not so exciting because basically you don’t try to get the perfect set-up for yourself, and as I wasn’t the main driver for the whole season I wasn’t too involved in the set-up. I would just get there and try to adapt to what the other two drivers were doing during the season. It was nice, it was fun. We ended up being quick both times I drove. But it is not the same levels of excitement. It was very calm. The whole race you are very calm and relaxed. There is a little bit of a rush missing.
Q. Does your present domestic situation allow you to commit to racing?
JV: Domestic in terms of being divorced?
Q. Yes, with your kids…
JV: Of course, I guess it is easier when you have a wife helping out. But I have a nanny. But it is fine. There is no fighting, and if there had been any fighting then you would have heard about it for sure. So it is not a bad situation. And if it was two little girls instead of two little boys it might be a bit more difficult.
Q. Does the fact that Rubens Barrichello is doing so well this year, having been in the sport for so long, boost your chances of coming back, do you think?
JV: Oh, it is great. That is great. But it is not only Rubens. It is the experienced guys who are running at the front – with [Sebastian] Vettel there once in a while as well. The way the cars, the regulations, have evolved it seems that experience has become paramount again, as is the way the driver works with his engineers. All the teams that relied on young blood seem to have gone backwards and are having a very difficult time getting up to speed. You cannot rely on the electronic any more. Teams cannot say to a drive, ‘shut up and drive’. That just doesn’t work any more.
Q. You still have a very good relationship with Jock Clear. What does he say about it?
JV: Well, he is part of the reason why I wanted to come back. Since the beginning of the season, he has been telling me that I would love these cars. They would suit the way I work and drive, and I would have fun again – even with the way the teams have got a bit smaller. So that kind of helped me want to come back, which is why I went to Monaco.
Q. Your talks with US F1, have they stalled totally?
JV: US F1, for some reason is not an avenue. I am not American enough!
Q. Do you feel that the teams you are speaking to understand the benefits of experience?
JV: Yes. But also, it is one thing to arrive with a sack of gold. But I still have some image in different countries. If a team works it well, it can bring it money as well – I just don’t arrive with that sack of gold attached to my belt. That is all.
Q. When you were racing in 1997, with you and Michael Schumacher going at it big time, and you compare it to this season – do you feel that there is something missing at the present?
JV: There is a huge lack of excitement. They are all lovey-dovey. They are all best friends. There are no gladiators. When I watch sport I want to see battle, I want to see gladiators going at it. I am not saying they should kill each other, that is not the point, but they should want to outperform the others in a mean way. That has to be driving you, and it doesn’t seem to be driving anyone out there. It is amazing.
Q. Do you talk to Michael nowadays?
JV: No, we have never been socially active – if that is the right word. It would be great if he came back. There has never been a hate problem between us, but just other things happening. He has achieved a lot and he was definitely a character in F1.
Q. Do you think nowadays in F1 the drivers have lost power? And that could have been a factor in why Nelson Piquet agreed to crash deliberately in Singapore last year?
JV: That is not a driver losing his power. That is just a driver being weak, young and a total idiot. And proving that he should never have been part of Formula 1. It is very simple.
Q. Were you surprised that he was granted immunity?
JV: Yes.
Q. What do you think should have happened?
JV: He was granted immunity, he got it, so that’s fine. But it doesn’t mean that people will look at him in the paddock with respect. If something like that happened to me, I would go to the moon or something – go somewhere really far away.
Q. You worked for three grands prix with Renault…
JV: Yeah. It was great. I was never asked to do anything weird or to help Fernando [Alonso]. Not that I would have done so anyway, but it was never in any of the discussions.
Q. So are you surprised that Flavio Briatore was involved in something like this?
JV: I am sure that we don’t even know the full story anyway – and it is easy to just start judging. One of the last things I read is that it was Nelsinho who brought the subject up. If someone brings that up to the table, what do you say? You say, ‘you’re an idiot’ for a few seconds, and then you start thinking about, maybe think it is a good idea, but then you push it away. Everybody for a few seconds will think, ‘hmmmm’. You don’t say no to a present. Then later on, you just adapt. If it really happened like that, then I think it is amazing.
Q. How do you rate your chances of coming in?
JV: I don’t know. Some days it is very high and some days it is very low. It is a moving sand right now. It is really strange. They are better than they were a month ago.
Q. Is there more chance with an incoming team, or an existing team?
JV: 50/50.