So there's some beef going on with Jacques Villeneuve and his (now former) WEC team, Vanwall/ByKolles.
Will put all the info and tea I've found under the cut because there's a lot that's been apparently going on behind the scenes, lol.
This is the latest piece that has come out (just yesterday), posting the full translated article in English from German below:
Zoff about Jacques Villeneuve: is he telling the truth?
Jacques Villeneuve claims that Vanwall is preventing him from starting the 24 Hours of Le Mans against his will, but the team is not letting up on that
<Last Thursday, Vanwall confirmed that Jacques Villeneuve would not contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the team. A decision that is now causing a stir. Because while Villeneuve publicly denies the team's previous representation, an e-mail from Villeneuve has now appeared as counter-evidence, which he is said to have written himself.
First of all, Vanwall team boss Colin Kolles said on Thursday that Villeneuve's services would be dispensed with: "The situation is that we don't feel that he is ready to go to Le Mans. His wife is pregnant and they are expecting The baby in early June. Le Mans is a big race. We can't take the risk."
A representation that Villeneuve is now countering. He was "very disappointed" by Vanwall's decision to nominate Tristan Vautier for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in his place, claiming: "I have not received any official communication from the team to date. This is all the more surprising as I I'm still under contract to drive the 24 Hours of Le Mans."
The timing of the announcement of Vanwall's decision not to field him at Le Mans "strangely coincided with my arrival at the hospital for the birth of our daughter, who was expected on May 26th. ByKolles was aware of this family event, so I was unaware of the unexpected announcement couldn't react."
"Under these circumstances," his statement continued, "I have decided not to contest the rest of the WEC season with ByKolles. Instead, I am focusing on being able to contest a more successful and professional season in 2024 and expend my energy on it."
Kolles sour: Is Villeneuve claiming untruth?
But Villeneuve's statement now draws the wrath of Colin Kolles. At the request of 'Motorsport-Total.com' he explains that the representation of the former Formula 1 world champion is incorrect and points out that on May 17th, eight days before the Vanwall announcement, Villeneuve said of his own accord about the should have informed not to appear.
In the now-revealed email to ByKolles team manager Boris Bermes, "Chuck Newton" (a pseudonym Villeneuve uses) writes: "I am very sorry to inform you and the Wanwall [sic] Racing Team that I am not able to be able to race at Le Mans and I have decided to retire from the 2023 WEC season."
Villeneuve justified this in the e-mail with "two reasons", on the one hand with the upcoming birth of his daughter ("I decided to give priority to my family"). This "seems to clash with the demanding Le Mans 24 program and under the circumstances I wouldn't be able to focus on the job, which I'm not comfortable with."
On the other hand, the Villeneuve email continues, "I don't think we currently have the right package to be able to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Despite the significant improvements we made at the last test at Monza brought the car, I'm not convinced of the overall performance and reliability of the car."
Villeneuve also complains that the team didn't give him enough testing time, even though he recently drove a vanwall test at Monza. And he explicitly asks Vanwall to communicate his non-appearance at Le Mans, "both internally and externally. I will tell fans and partners myself the news in the next few days."
How the Vanwall team renders the backgrounds
What is known is that things were already brewing behind the scenes before Villeneuve announced his internal withdrawal on May 17th. He had caused three crashes in three races, most recently in Spa in the course of a collision with a GTE Ferrari. And the team was anything but satisfied with the speed shown by the 52-year-old, but didn't make any big fuss about it.
Just as little as the fact that he was obviously ill-prepared and allegedly hadn't read the manual for the Vanwall Vandervell 680, a hypercar for the top class of the WEC, until the very end. Incidentally, this may have been one of the reasons for the accident in Portimao, which was initially officially communicated by the team as a brake defect.
Crash in Portimao: Was it really a brake defect?
Now it's leaked: Vanwall let the representation of the brake defect sit down to protect Villeneuve. In fact, he apparently accidentally pressed the out-lap button, causing the car to stop and a "power cycle" to be initiated. However, because he is said not to have known how to deal with it due to a lack of knowledge of the manual, it had to be laboriously explained to him on the radio.
In the meantime several minutes had passed. As a result, due to a lack of cooling from the headwind, the heat was transferred from the brake disc to the brake calipers, which caused a rubber seal to swell and become brittle and blocked a brake cylinder. This in turn caused the brake disc to overheat, ultimately causing it to explode and causing the crash.
A test then took place in May at Monza, where Villeneuve was given driving time to prepare for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. On the same day, the vehicle was taken over by teammate Tom Dillmann, who was several seconds faster in the same configuration. And Vanwall's doubts as to whether Villeneuve should drive grew steadily.
Vanwall wanted separation without losing face for Villeneuve
So the team proposed a quiet solution without loss of face: Villeneuve should voluntarily retire, citing the birth of his daughter as a reason. Vanwall would have officially regretted this decision, but acknowledged it. Only: Villeneuve does not seem to remember this agreement anymore.
His latest statement contradicts what he is said to have said in the email to Vanwall on May 17, and means the team now feels no need to protect him. Important in this context: The authenticity of Villeneuve's email to Vanwall cannot be confirmed with certainty. However, when asked, Kolles assures that he received an email from Villeneuve on May 17th.
In this email - just as a side note - Villeneuve also asked Vanwall to cover the cost of the motorhome he had rented as private accommodation for the 24 Hours of Le Mans "and which I will not be using now". . A request that the team does not respond to in view of the now smoldering conflict.
In his official statement, Villeneuve presented things very differently. He prepared for Le Mans "meticulously and well organised", both physically and mentally. And he says he is "very depressed" that he was "unfairly and arbitrarily" denied the opportunity to compete in Le Mans in 2023.
A War of the Roses in which the last word has probably not yet been spoken...>
To give some context to this ongoing beef, Vanwall/ByKolles dropped Jacques from their team for LeMans 24hrs few days ago with a public announcement.
According to Jacques' own public statement that he released yesterday, he was blindsided by the team's announcement and not informed in the slightest.
But going by this Motorsport-total article... not only he was informed indeed, BUT he himself asked the team to release his dropout statement to the press for him.
Interesting. (And this story does seem far from over, so who knows what else is going to come out...)
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