Jacques Villeneuve has criticised BMW Sauber’s decision to replace him.

The French-Canadian, who won the world championship with Williams in 1997, said his successor at the team - 21-year-old Robert Kubica - is a dubious choice if the German team want to win in 2007.

“As of now, he doesn’t have much racing experience,” Villeneive told F1 Racing magazine. “Experience is always important because racing involves getting yourself out of tricky situations — and it’s easier to get out of them if you’ve learnt from how you did and didn’t get out of them.”

Villeneuve also warned against judging the rookie Pole until he has notched up more experience than Friday practice miles and one race.

“People should realise that doing a good Friday job isn’t the same as doing a good job on race weekends,” he insisted, “and you won’t find out what any driver is really like until he does quite a few race weekends. So Robert is a question mark.”

Villeneuve’s future is precariously balanced at the moment, but he indicated that - F1 aside - NASCAR would be a better option than returning to America’s open-wheeler categories such as Champ Car or the IRL. “Le Mans, sports cars, DTM, IRL, Champ Car? Well, I’m sorry, but they’re all a step down from F1. NASCAR isn’t.”

[GMM]

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