That is the view of Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya, who says that Villeneuve will try to destroy Button mentally at the earliest opportunity.

"Jacques is going to do that for sure at the beginning," Montoya said.

"Jenson will be quicker than Jacques in every single test (over the winter) and when they get to the first race, Jacques will probably outqualify him by a second or something.

"Typical Jacques. And then Jenson's going to start wondering, what happened? Where did that come from?

"That's the way it happens and if Jenson doesn't keep his cool....

"Jacques can raise his game quite a lot, I don't think he's pushing as hard as he could," added Montoya. "There's a lot left in him."

Turning the heat up when it counts is a ploy that Villeneuve has used on team-mates in the past.

Most dramatically, his performances in qualifying left the highly-rated Heinz-Harald Frentzen perplexed when the two were at Williams in 1997-8.

Montoya was test driver at Williams in 1998.

The Colombian came into F1 via the same path as Villeneuve - both were champions of the US-based Cart series.

Downward spiral

They also have very similar driving styles - uncompromising and hard, but fair.

Montoya, who replaced Button at Williams at the end of the 2000 season, added: "I think Jenson's good.

"But I think Jacques gets somebody (as a team-mate) who wouldn't be the strongest guy in the head so that he can have the upper hand.

"Probably in two years Jenson would be OK, but at the moment he is a guy who is very, very, very fragile in the head."

Montoya said this was a common characteristic of relatively young drivers in F1.

"When everything goes their way, they are really quick and unbeatable," he said.

"But when something goes wrong, it's..." he added, making a downward spiral with his fingers as he spoke.

Button experienced this problem last year, when he was comprehensively outpaced by Giancarlo Fisichella at Benetton.

In a separate interview with BBC Five Live on Thursday, Villeneuve highlighted Button's inexperience.

Villeneuve said: "(Button) doesn't have the experience yet, not much.

"Last year was a season lost. But this year he seems to have overshadowed (Italian Jarno) Trulli and done a good job."

Villeneuve also criticised Renault for replacing the wrong driver two years on the trot.