Villeneuve rages against 'the machines'.

Jacques Villeneuve may not have been among Formula One's most recent winners, but the Canadian remains among the most outspoken of the current crop of drivers - who he claims are little more than clones.

The 1997 world champion has suffered hard times - and few top six finishes - in the past few years, as British American Racing comes to grips with the realities of grand prix racing, but simply being in F1 was a point proved for Villeneuve.

According to the Scottish Herald, a certain team boss attempted to dissuade a shy Canadian teenager from even thinking about joining the grand prix circus - but only succeeded in making him more determined to do so.

So the story goes, Villeneuve and manager Craig Pollock were approached by Ron Dennis in the Suzuka paddock while the then fledgling racer was seeking an F3 drive in Japan. Still celebrating after seeing Ayrton Senna clinch the world title for McLaren, Dennis apparently told Villeneuve to steer clear of the top flight.

"You're nothing to do with Formula One," Dennis allegedly said, "You're not welcome."

Villeneuve landed the F3 ride, graduated to Champcars and, after clinching the Indianapolis 500 and CART titles, eventually made the break to F1 with Williams, where he partnered Damon Hill in the Englishman's championship season. Having pushed Hill all the way to the final round, the Canadian was then perfectly placed to ram a certain team manager's words back down his throat.

Williams was clearly the best team in F1, running the best chassis and powered by the indomitable Renault V10. Villeneuve was locked in a head-to-head with Michael Schumacher, eventually taking the crown after the infamous coming together at Jerez. Although not exactly happy with the German's tactics, there was someone else he wanted to confront first.

"Jacques went up to Ron and said 'I want to say one thing to you - F*** you! I'm in F1 now and I'm staying here," recalls manager Pollock, "It was still burning inside him and had to get it out."

While the incident may reveal one of the reasons why JV has never wound up in the cockpit of a McLaren, his chances of partnering Schumacher at Ferrari also look to be close to zero.

"I've never respected him as a person. Full stop," is Villeneuve's succinct appraisal of another man he views as more 'machine' than human, "He simply isn't a nice person."

Strangely, perhaps, the antagonism does not revolve around an on-track incident - although Villeneuve has had enough to say about that aspect of Schumacher in the past - but rather something that happened at the post-race party in Jerez.

"I knew he was going to [drive me off the road] even before the race started - he always cracks under pressure," he said of the title-deciding incident, "but the real trigger was the photograph his wife took at the post-race party. [Michael] put on a blonde wig to imitate my hair [which was bleach blond at the time] and started mucking around as if we were best mates. The next week [the pictures] were in magazines portraying that we were friends - 'I did nothing wrong, Jacques doesn't hate me' sort of thing - and that made me really, really angry. He was using a situation for his own private benefit."

The 31-year old has gone on to say that Formula One needs more characters to replace the corporate the bland generation of drivers currently behind the wheel of most of the cars on the grid. Rally star Colin McRae and MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi were apparently at the Canadian's list of welcome opponents, as he went on to lament the probable exit of Eddie Irvine from the top flight.

'You only live once,' he noted, 'Life's serious enough without having a bit of a laugh.'