Jacques Villeneuve is a hard man to please. More so, he's a hard man to interview. Nevertheless, the disappointing weekend at the US Grand Prix last week, coupled with ever-growing criticism in the media over his performance and choice to stay with BAR, led Villeneuve to the Interview Table, shortly before he left for Japan. This is what he has to say, followed by the reaction of team boss Craig Pollock

Q: Jacques, you've been in the firing line since Indianapolis. Are you surprised by the criticism?

Jacques Villeneuve: "Indianapolis was a terrible weekend - I think probably the worst in my career! I can understand the criticism after that performance. What irritates me is that people have suggested that I've written myself or BAR off. In recent interviews I've been frustrated and outspoken - that's the sort of person I am. The people who misinterpret that are people who don't know me. People who know me know how I speak and what I say. I didn't say 'BAR was doomed from the start.' When I said 'I'm not expecting anything next year' if they'd printed the rest of my quote it would have said that I would prefer to be pleasantly surprised by the new car rather than build it up before I even get in it. It doesn't help anybody twisting what I say. People read more into my frustration than I actually mean."

Q: You do tend to 'tell it like it is'. Is that an attempt to motivate people?

Villeneuve: "The guys don't need motivating. They're working their backsides off and just need to get something back. I guess I've always said what I thought and what was on my mind and how I saw things. Then of course it can be interpreted differently, depending on which words are used. If a few words are omitted on a written piece of paper, then the same phrase with the same words can be turned around into something else. I think things can come out a lot more negative than the discussion that was actually happening."

Q: You've said the Indianapolis weekend was terrible. What went wrong?

Villeneuve: "The weekend started badly on Friday, and then we just didn't get into it with Jock. We didn't work properly, and we didn't get anywhere with the set-up. We had some problems on Friday morning that kept us behind, and after that we were so far back, we didn't get into it as we normally do. We actually put Olivier's set-up on for the race, and it worked. Our pace in the race was better but by then we had screwed up the weekend. Even if I didn't bang wheels with de la Rosa, we still would have been behind. The other problem we've found is that it's very difficult to get two cars the same. Two cars with exactly the same set-up are different, so you end up spending more time changing bits to see if you can fix it, without changing the set-up. That's what we did basically and that was a big mistake from my part and from Jock's."

Q: Was there some discussion between you and Craig?

Villeneuve: "Yes, a lot. I had a meeting with Craig and he was very frank with his views - about me and about the team performance. It was a very bad weekend and he was angry. A lot of frustration came out from both of us. We always spend a lot of time talking anyway but things have reached a critical point. Even Olivier, who got the weekend right, wasn't that competitive at the end of the day. I don't think Craig has done all the talking he wants to yet; I think there's more to come in Suzuka. Craig will be flexing his muscles more within the team now, which is good. Maybe that's what's needed."

Q: Was there any criticism within the team of your performance, apart from not getting the set-up right?

Villeneuve: "There has been some, because I didn't work like I did in every race in the last three years. I guess we could have worked harder. But it's been a tough year, and it just culminated in that one race. I think the criticism has come mainly from outside the team this year, from the media and those who don't really know how hard everyone has been trying."

Q: You mean you worked but didn't get it right, or what?

Villeneuve: "We didn't get it right and we didn't work properly. You get the frustration of a bad season, I guess, and it suddenly all comes out at the same time. It came out that weekend, and it cost us. A lot."

Q: Were you surprised by the press reaction at Indy?

Villeneuve: "I'd won the Indy 500 before, so I guess people were expecting that it was a place where I'd get another podium. Instead, it was actually our worst race. So I guess it had a double negative effect. One very bad weekend where you don't work hard enough overshadows three years of hard work - three years without results but still being positive."

Q: Any thoughts on Suzuka?

Villeneuve: "The car wasn't very competitive in Spa and Suzuka is very similar to Spa. But it's the last race, there is plenty of energy, and we've just got to get it right, and work really, really hard. If we get a perfect weekend we might get a point or two, or with a little bit of luck, a podium. So it's worth it to pour the energy in, and to finish the season on a high note. I think that will help everybody work on the new car in November and December."

Q: Does it annoy you when people suggest that you haven't been trying hard enough this year?

Villeneuve: "It does annoy me, because we've been the leading Honda car, and we're the only ones with podiums. We've been a lot better off in the races. We haven't really concentrated on qualifying this year, we've concentrated on the races, and we did get the podiums and some points."

Q: Is the BAR dream still intact?

Villeneuve: "I still want to win with this team, definitely."

Q: What can Craig do that he hasn't been doing before?

Villeneuve: "He can get more involved when things aren't going right, banging fists on the table I guess. Instead of having the team separate in terms of car, marketing and so on, the team needs one leader who leads everything. If something is wrong, then it has to be fixed, and no one can tell me that nothing was wrong this year, because the car definitely was not quick, which is a sad thing, because the team has been working really, really hard. Everybody has such a positive attitude, that it's very hard to understand where we went wrong."

Q: Do you think people have misinterpreted your thoughts on next season?

Villeneuve: "I haven't given up on next year at all. I want to go on the break, and not think about next year or think that our car is going to be 3s a lap quicker. I just want to come back, get in the car and think, 'Oh yeah, this is a great car,' or 'Hmm, this might be tough.' Not be disappointed if it is on the tough side, and be happily surprised if the car is good."

Q: So you don't have any specific expectations now - you've put it all on hold?

Villeneuve: "I'm a competitor, and I'm competitive as a person, so of course I've got expectations. But I'm trying to force myself not to have them, because that's what has really hurt this year. Somehow I still end up telling myself next year's car will be brilliant! But I'm also telling myself don't think like that, because that's how we've been thinking for three years in a row now. So I want to let the people get on with their work inside the team. I know they're working hard, and Craig is getting in there to move things along, so there's no reason for it to not be good."

Q: What's this year been like for your morale?

Villeneuve: "When the (2000) season was over, we all felt like it was Christmas; the new car is arriving, and it will be mega, we will be at the front and we will be kicking ass basically. I think that was a mistake, because it didn't happen. I'm not sure why we ended up thinking like that; I guess we were so happy that, compared to the first season, 2000 had turned around. We just thought that 2001 would be another step in the same direction, and we'd be fighting the McLarens and the Ferraris. So I think that's why it's been very frustrating to have a tough season, because even though we got the two podiums, I think we were actually less competitive than last year."

Q: We presume that Honda will come up with something special, but what else will it take to improve things?

Villeneuve: "From what I've been told Honda are coming up with something special, but as we've seen from another team this year, when there's something completely new, it can be very difficult at the beginning. It could be great right out of the box, or it could be great 3-4 months later. That we won't know until it's in the car. But it's good that there's something new. The engine that we've had for the last two years improved a little bit, but it seems to have been hard to make it better, so a new package was actually needed. So that's good. We need to get rid of the inherent problem that we have in the car. We know which area of the car it is now."

Q: And it's hard to change the basics...

Villeneuve: "When you have a bad car sometimes it's impossible to improve it, whatever you change. That's happened to many teams in the past - whatever you change on it, it will never go fast. This car was one of them. It doesn't matter how good the team is, once the car is designed, you're stuck with it. It's happened to Ferrari, it's happened to Williams, it's happened to McLaren as well. These are the three top teams, and it happened to them. And they've turned it around. We're a big team, there are big sponsors and good people, so there's no reason for it not to turn around. But everybody's got a lot of pressure on their shoulders, because everybody in the team knows that everybody will be blamed if the team doesn't get turned around. And that probably includes me."

Q: There was some luck involved, but were the podium finishes a building block for the future?

Villeneuve: "I think the podiums just relaxed everybody in the team, made everybody a little bit more comfortable, because it had been tough. We had a difficult start to the season, we didn't get points, we had a big crash, so the podiums were important. But they never meant that we were competitive. I think that's also what made it difficult - we'd got these podiums, but we still weren't very competitive. So then you'd get to the next race and be at the back again, so that makes it hard."

Q: Is there something inherent in this year's car that makes it not quick in qualifying - perhaps because the tyres aren't being worked hard enough?

Villeneuve: "I'm not sure if it uses the tyres hard enough or not - we don't have enough data on what's happening with everybody else. But we've had a car which has extreme cooling, basically, and we can hardly ever run the engine hot. Which is great when there are hot races, because everybody destroys the aerodynamics so they can cool the engine off. We don't have to do that. So basically our performance doesn't go down from qualifying to the race, whereas other people's often does."

Q: What other areas do you think the package is weak in?

Villeneuve: "Aerodynamics is probably the most important thing on a race car, so my guess is we're down on aero. We're not quick around the corners, and we're not that quick down the straights either. Our efficiency doesn't seem to be very good, but then we've had a mechanical problem on the car that we haven't pinpointed yet. Often jumping from racecar to T-car, even in testing, the two cars with exactly the same set-up are very, very different. So there's something happening somewhere which we're not sure about. We only found out about that problem very late, so that slowed down our development, I would say."

Q: So you were just too optimistic before the season?

Villeneuve: "That's it. When it's like that and it doesn't work out it's twice as heavy - and twice as difficult. Which is why I've been saying that I'm not expecting anything for next year. It doesn't mean I don't want to do anything good. I prefer to not think about it, wait until the new car is there, drive it, and then see if it's a good or a bad car."

Q: Are you still confident that Malcolm Oastler, Andy Green and the rest of the design team can get it right?

Villeneuve: "The first year car, which was a very basic car, was actually quite competitive. So maybe we just started to go in the wrong direction. Sometimes the best people in the world can start going in the wrong direction, and it's hard to keep a perspective. Everyone needs a break, and to start with a little bit of a fresh mind."

Q: There have been suggestions that you might never find you way into one of the current top three teams. Is that realistic?

Villeneuve: "I don't regret my decision. There were cards on the table, and some cards you see, and some cards you try to guess. It's a poker game. So I don't regret it. Everything looked like the right thing to do. It went the wrong way, but it's not too late to turn it around. It's a big team, there's a lot of people. It's still a fresh team. At the race track and in testing the people I work with are working really, really hard and really well. The factory is working hard, making the bits and everything, we just had a bad car basically."

Pollock: "I've always said that I'm prepared to work night and day to make this team successful and that hasn't changed. If anything, my toughest challenge is ahead of me now but I intend to embrace it and overcome any obstacle. I am 110% behind the whole team and I know they will support me in return. We have two very high calibre drivers - Olivier has been pushing Jacques all season and has frequently outqualified him. I know he will continue to push Jacques next season and that's great because that's the only way we will get the best from both drivers and the team. We must have a car that can capitalise on our competitive driver line-up and move us back into contention. What little respect we may have earned having gone through the first two very difficult years has been lost and the only way to get it back is by consistently finishing in the points and on the podium. You merit respect by results and we will strive to get the results I think we deserve."