 Villeneuve won the world championship in 1997 for Williams |
Ex-world champion Jacques Villeneuve has welcomed the news that BMW are the new owners of his Sauber F1 team. "It's a bit of a nice surprise," said the Canadian. "I think this news is very good for the team.
"It will trigger an almost certain budget increase for the entire operation and will allow the engineers and the drivers to develop the car.
"The team is very efficient considering the budget it has, so I can only see things becoming better in the future."
However, Villeneuve is not certain to remain with the Swiss-based team despite having one year to run on his contract.
The Canadian has had a troubled season so far and there have been persistent rumours that he will be replaced.
Germany's Nick Heidfeld, currently driving for the BMW-powered Williams team, does not have a guaranteed drive for next year and is seen as a leading candidate to move across to Sauber when BMW take charge.
BMW will take charge of Sauber from January next year.
MMIX
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