Friday March 24th, 2000

Canada's former world champion Jacques Villeneuve is hoping for a second successive points finish at Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix but says his BAR is still not fast enough.

Villeneuve, who won the world title with Williams in 1997, finished fourth in the opening round of the season in Australia after failing to secure a point in the whole of 1999.

He told a pre-race news conference in Brazil an enormous weight had been lifted after his points finish -- the first for the BAR team -- and the new Honda-powered car was strong and reliable.

"I am hoping that we will see the same things happen here that we saw in Melbourne," said the Canadian.

But he added: "It's definitely not quick enough. We definitely need more downforce."

Villeneuve said some improvements should be introduced by the British Grand Prix at Silverstone at the end of April and he was optimistic for the future.

He said other teams were unlikely to have made any great improvements in reliability since Melbourne, where BAR had two cars in the top six after Mika Salo's Sauber was disqualified and only nine drivers out of 22 finished.

"The team's working well. Both Ricardo (Zonta) and I are running strongly and it shows a big improvement.

"Sometimes it takes many, many years for a team to make the smallest improvement and if you start at the back, a team very often stays at the back.

"After a season like last year it would have been very easy for the team to collapse. It hasn't, it has become stronger."

"It's looking good right now," he added when asked about his own future with the team.