When Olivier Panis left his role as test driver for McLaren to get back into a Formula 1 race seat at British American Racing for 2001, he knew what he was letting himself in for. His new team-mate Jacques Villeneuve had made a point of psychologically destroying his previous two stablemates in Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ricardo Zonta, and the 1997 world champion’s position as a BAR shareholder made him the unquestioned number one.
Yet 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner Panis remembers his two years alongside Villeneuve fondly, and cites the Canadian as his favourite team-mate from a long career in which he also partnered Martin Brundle, Jarno Trulli and Cristiano da Matta.
“I knew him a bit from the past,” says Panis, who almost beat Villeneuve to win the 1997 Spanish Grand Prix while they were at Ligier and Williams respectively. “I respected Jacques a lot but, Jacques respected me a lot as well. I had already some experience and I was a winner of a grand prix and maybe this…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Autosport.com – Formula 1 – Stories…