Jacques Villeneuve Calls Stroll "Worst Rookie Ever"

[cosworth151]

Jacques Villeneuve (remember him?) doesn't care for his countryman Lance Stroll.

"Results speak for themselves. It is one of the worst rookie performances in the history of Formula 1."

Really, Jacques? Have you been attending the Lewis Hamilton School of Public Speaking? Can you remember Yuji Ide?

http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/jacques-villeneuve-says-lance-stroll-may-be-worst-f1-rookie-history
 

[lkjohnson1950]

The new cars make the step up from a lower formula to F1 more difficult this year. The cars are sliding around more and seem to have a very narrow set up window. Stroll seemed to find something in Canada, let's see if he closes the gap to Massa the rest of the season.

[Alianora La Canta]

I think I can think of worse candidates. I think at least one of them might be on the grid now.

[Scott]

JV has always been a dickhead out of the car.  Whatever... 

[Andy B]

What Scott said. 

[John S]

Could his patently stupid remarks have anything to do with Jacques thinking Lance is not true Québécois?    

Many sites list Lance as Belgian-Canadian on account of his mother being Claire-Anne Callens a Belgian fashion designer. Lance was born in Montreal though which last time I looked was in Quebec. 

[Jericoke]

Could his patently stupid remarks have anything to do with Jacques thinking Lance is not true Québécois?    

Many sites list Lance as Belgian-Canadian on account of his mother being Claire-Anne Callens a Belgian fashion designer. Lance was born in Montreal though which last time I looked was in Quebec.

Some Canadians like to link to their heritage by hyphenating, so if (one of) your parents aren't Canadian, you'll identify yourself as 'Wherever'-Canadian.  I would imagine things are a little prickly when you grow up in a region typically identified as 'French-Canadian', and your mother grew up in a country that takes umbrage with being called 'French'.  It's possible Stroll doesn't want to be called 'French' Canadian any more than Jackie Stewart wants to be called English.

(Of course, sometimes things like these take on a life of their own.  One interview once might have clarified he's not French, but Belgian, and it just keeps getting picked up over and over again, not because Stroll insisted.)

As for JV, consider how many laps Stroll has turned in a Williams compared to how many JV turned before his first race.  As a 'rookie' Villeneuve had already turned a full season worth of laps before his first race due to unlimited testing, and Williams being a 'have' team with unlimited budget.  It won't be a fair comparison until Stroll has finished the season, and run with a top team.

For that matter... Stroll has an average of 2 points per race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.  Jacques averaged 1 point per race on home soil during his career.

(I agree with Stroll being disappointing though.)

[Scott]

I was born in Montreal and I cant even SPEAK French, much less consider myself Québécois.  I think for one to be considered Québécois, it is much more than simply birthright, but goes back generations.

That said, JV effectively grew up in Monaco, so I doubt he would be accepted by the hard core  Q's either.

[Dare]

I was born in Montreal and I cant even SPEAK French, much less consider myself Québécois.  I think for one to be considered Québécois, it is much more than simply birthright, but goes back generations.

That said, JV effectively grew up in Monaco, so I doubt he would be accepted by the hard core  Q's either.

In regions that speak French are English speakers treated
differently? Are there any social differences?

[Scott]

First of all, nobody LOOKS Québécois so there isn't anything you would notice from the first encounter.  Then there's the language.  Like any multilingual situation in any country, it usually becomes apparent in the first few sentences what your mother tongue is, even if you do speak French perfectly well (the only people I have ever known to have no detectable accent are children of parents with different languages, like my kids). 

At that point, it depends on the person.  I have had a few very close Québécois friends, over the years, but our friendships were based on cars, or skateboarding, or skiing or common friends.  That said, yes, there are certain Québécois who, upon finding out you aren't one, treat non-Q's dismissively or rudely.

But there are FAR more (proportionally more) English Canadians who treat anyone with the slightest French accent poorly or rudely, and as a group are more dismissive and bigoted against French Canadians in general.

Socially I would say the Québécois culture is more food and wine with big family gatherings rather than beer and BBQ's with friends over family like the rest of Canada.  In Q it's mostly Catholic, with the rest of Canada being diverse.  Interesting is that there is a large African population in Quebec, mostly from the NW French spoken African countries.  These immigrants have been embraced and integrated better than most other immigrant populations in Canada.

[Jericoke]

I was born in Montreal and I cant even SPEAK French, much less consider myself Québécois.  I think for one to be considered Québécois, it is much more than simply birthright, but goes back generations.

That said, JV effectively grew up in Monaco, so I doubt he would be accepted by the hard core  Q's either.

In regions that speak French are English speakers treated
differently? Are there any social differences?

It's not as overt as racism and classism is in other countries, but there is a divide and general disdain.  Historically the English formed the 'ruling' class in Quebec, but it's not so bad as it was even a generation ago.

Ironically while 'anglos' tend to dominate Canada in terms of culture and business sectors, if you can't speak French, you'll find it very difficult to succeed in national politics.

[Andy B]

When I was the Canadian GP, at the same time as Jeri, I made so good friends who took me into their group once they realised that I could not speak French. They have an FB so am still in touch with them now I think I can say that they made my Canadian GP experience the best of all my GP experiences.

[Warmwater]

M. Stroll may yet prove to be a winning driver in F1. He seems to be taking a very cautious approach after his early misadventures, moving up from over-exuberance to professional craftsmanship... that can only be achieved through experience.
While I admire M. Villeneuve's usual candor, he might be a little off-base here (tribal jealousy?).

[Irisado]

Really, Jacques? Have you been attending the Lewis Hamilton School of Public Speaking? Can you remember Yuji Ide?

My thoughts exactly.

I've never liked Villeneuve.  I've always felt that he was an extremely lucky world champion and I took a great deal of pleasure in Minardi beating Villeneuve and BAR to tenth in the constructors' championship in 1999, with the megabucks BAR Team finishing eleventh and last with no points.  This remains one of the highlights of my time watching Formula 1.

Villeneuve has had an attitude from day one of his Formula 1 career.  It is true that he impressed in his debut season, but the 1996 Williams was untouchable and so he was never really under any pressure.  In 1997, Williams still had by far the best car, yet Villeneuve contrived to mess up his own races on a regular basis and scraped to the title by just a single point after the infamous collision with Schumacher at Jerez.  If he were a top quality driver he would have waltzed away with that championship easily.  It's worth noting that he never won a race for the rest of his career and ended up being rather humbled by Jenson Button at BAR, before drifting away into obscurity at Renault and Sauber.

Lance Stroll is not the best rookie that has ever graced a Formula 1 grid, and I have doubts about him, but to claim that he is the worst rookie ever is completely disingenuous and disrespectful.  Stroll has simply been average, with some poor performances thrown in.  Nothing that he has done has been worthy of such scorn from Villeneuve though.

In addition to Ide (the obvious candidate for worst rookie ever), there are a few other names to throw into the mix:

Philippe Adams
Jean-Denis Deletraz
Taki Inoue

[John S]

In addition to Ide (the obvious candidate for worst rookie ever), there are a few other names to throw into the mix:

Philippe Adams
Jean-Denis Deletraz
Taki Inoue

All my jury's votes go to Deletraz, what a stinker!!!

At least the rest could run on the pace, well occasionally ,
but Deletraz was always anywhere between 6 & 12 seconds off the pace.   
Yes that is every lap!