Villeneuve bids for Indy 500 title 19 years on
One-time Formula 1 world champion, Jacques Villeneuve, is set to make his IndyCar comeback at the Indianapolis 500 in May.
Sports betting fans will recall that the 42-year-old left the sport in 1995 after winning the Indy 500 and the CART championship to become an F1 driver for Williams, winning the world title in 1997.
The Canadian will compete for the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team in the 500-mile race which covers 200 laps of Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 2.5-mile oval.
"If you have to win one race in the whole of your career, the Indy 500 is the one in any form of motorsports," said Villeneuve as he looks forward to his long-awaited return on May 25.
Since he quit F1 in 2006, Villeneuve has competed in LeMans 24 and NASCAR, while he recently signed up to drive for Scottish team Albatec Racing in the World Rallycross Championship, which begins in early May.
Despite a busy calendar, Villeneuve had no hesitation in signing up for the Indy 500 having felt the buzz watching the 2013 IndyCar series.
"The discussions happened at the right time," he added, according to the F1 betting page on the bet365 website.
"I had been watching the IndyCars last year and it looked extremely exciting, to the point where I was angry and jealous that I wasn't racing. So that got me going again."
Quebec-born Villeneuve, one of only three drivers to have won the F1 world title, the Indycar Championship and the Indy 500, will link up with full-time Schmidt IndyCar drivers Simon Pagenaud of France and Mikhail Aleshin of Russia for the race in Indiana.
All eyes will be on Villeneuve to see if he can rediscover the magic of 1995, although just finishing the race would be an achievement after such a long time out of the sport.
|
