CART fans could have been watching Villeneuve, Tagliani and Tracy in a Canadian 'dream team' in 2003 but the indifferent attitude expressed towards the idea by JV and the greed exhibited by his management has completely sunk the proposal.
The idea had been for JV to join the Forsythe Racing Player's backed team for 2003, before rejoining F1 for the remainder of his current BAR contract. The plan was convenient for British American Tobacco as it would have maximised the exposure of their Player's brand before it is squashed by new legislation in North America. For the BAR squad, there was a chance to offload the crippling wages of the former world champ. Investment in developing their car next season would have been the net result for the struggling squad. The benefits to sponsors and the BAR team were not however the most significant advantages from such a deal, and these benefits have unfortunately been lost at a crucial time.
For starters, Villeneuve clearly needs something to ignite his interest in F1 again. BAR has been a complete disaster for the Canadian and it has all but wrecked his chances of ever getting a competitive drive again (partly because his wages stunt the development of the BAR chassi and partly because other stars have emerged since he was at Williams). A switch back to the CART series would have guaranteed JV a better chance of winning than he is likely to get in 2003 with BAR. Many observers suggested that a year away could have recharged JV's batteries, rehabilitating him after his time at BAR with the ultimate aim of getting him back to his best again before hopefully returning to a BAR team that had made some solid progress. Everyone seemed to benefit.
More significant however were the potential benefits to the CART series. The championship needs all the good news it can get at the moment, and the return of a major star and previous champ would have provided a much needed wave of publicity. At a time when the future of a number of the biggest teams in CART is in doubt, the return of JV would have been a timely boost to the series as it aims to consolidate before it begins the real re-building process.
I would argue that the benefits to the CART series would have been greater than the obvious benefits to Villeneuve, BAR and BAT. However, the chance has been lost and it is unlikely that the circumstances that made the situation possible will ever be repeated. It is a real shame.
Villeneuve will now spend yet another morale crushing season with BAR and the team itself will continue to struggle to improve its current form. CART will view this as a missed opportunity and rightly so. Assuming that the threat of more defections to the IRL materialises, CART may be left feeling that the presence of Villeneuve may have gone towards repairing some of the damage the defection of Honda and Toyota to the IRL may do.
Ultimately, the switch could have helped all of the parties involved. Unfortunately, for CART this missed opportunity may go down in history as a failure that signalled the demise of the series if it fails to weather the current storm.
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