Friday March 29th, 2002

Jacques Villeneuve insisted on Thursday that driving the gruelling Interlagos circuit this weekend will not lead to a recurrence of the back problem which forced him to miss a test in Barcelona last week.

The Canadian driver was in a lively mood despite his failure to score a point this season and he assured reporters in Sao Paulo that the bumpy circuit would not cause him any problems.

"It's not the bumps," he said. "There was just a little point in the seat and I was moving about in the last race. The car was very difficult to drive in Malaysia so I was very tense, I was very tight and that is why my back started hurting. It won't be a problem here."

Villeneuve was also positive about the future of his team after new boss David Richards wielded the axe at the Brackley factory last week. Richards said around 15 percent of the team would be made redundant in a massive clearout and it is believed he has plans to cut back further with the eventual loss of more than 100 jobs.

Villeneuve was initially outspoken against Prodrive boss Richards when he ousted the Canadian's mentor Craig Pollock from the team but now insists his new boss is moving things in the right direction.

"I think it has given a bit of a kick in the balls to everybody," Villeneuve said bluntly. "Everybody in the team was very comfortable before. If we had been winning, then being comfortable would have been a good thing. But if you are at the back of the pack and are still comfortable then there is something wrong."

Published at 14:10:43 GMT