OCTOBER 9, 2003

Villeneuve pulls out of Japan

Jacques Villeneuve decided on Thursday morning that he did not really want to go on with BAR-Honda and Craig Pollock rang team boss David Richards.

Jacques Villeneuve, Canadian GP 2003
© The Cahier Archive

Jacques Villeneuve has pulled out of the Japanese Grand Prix, making way for Takuma Sato to take over the drive. Villeneuve decided on Thursday morning that he did not really want to go on with BAR-Honda and Craig Pollock rang team boss David Richards who was on a bullet train from Tokyo to Suzuka.

The switch to Sato will not cause too much upset for the team as they are used to running the Japanese driver in tests.