Renault: Villeneuve signing was a mistake.

Jacques Villeneuve may have insisted that he has no regrets of his decision to join Renault for the final three races of 2004, but it appears that the teams bosses don't agree with the Canadians view of his short time with the squad.

Villeneuve joined the French outfit after the Italian Grand Prix to replace Jarno Trulli, after the Toyota bound Italian suffered a major loss of form during the mid-part of season. At that point the team was involved in a heated battle with BAR for second place in the constructors championship, but Villeneuve failed to score during the last three rounds of the season as Jenson Button and Takuma Sato secured enough points for BAR to take second spot.

Some questioned whether Villeneuve was the right man for the job when he was appointed, having not raced a Formula One car since September 2003 in the US Grand Prix. However driver and team were confident that the deal would be beneficial to both parties - putting a proven race winner alongside Fernando Alonso in the battle for second while also giving Villeneuve track time ahead of his full time return with Sauber in 2005.

But now the president of the Renault team Patrick Faure has admitted that the team made a mistake in turning to Villeneuve.

"I think we made a mistake, we must own up to it," he told Eurosport. "I think both Flavio Briatore and myself probably under-estimated the effects of a ten-month lay off - even for a world champion with the experience and talent of Jacques. To expect him to come straight in and score points immediately was probably unrealistic.

"The ten months he took off made it very, very difficult for him. I don't think his problem has been re-adapting to Formula One, I just think that, physically, he needs a few more months of competition to find top gear. He is the first to admit it when we have spoken.

"There have been a few good developments as far as F1 is concerned but, in a sporting context, this signing has not been a success. Clearly we made a mistake."