Jacques Villeneuve’s cars aren’t very reliable, his status as a Formula One star is plummeting, and his fat paycheck is severely weighing down his free agency options.

As Formula One hits the second half of the season, Villeneuve is clearly at a crossroads in his career. He has just eight more races to look at his options and pick the right course to follow.

“I am very confident he is going to be in Formula One next year,” said Craig Pollock, Villeneuve’s manager. “I think it would be the greatest shame for Formula One to lose a personality such as Jacques.”

Villeneuve definitely once was a top star.

He moved to F1 after winning the CART championship and the 1995 Indianapolis 500. As the only North American driver in the series, the Canadian built a tremendous fan base and was at the height of his popularity and profession when he won the F1 title in 1997.

What he did afterward made him financially secure for life, but drastically derailed his career.

Villeneuve left Williams, where he won his title, and followed Pollock as the manager helped form British American Racing in 1999. He got a monstrous contract out of it Villeneuve’s estimated $20 million a year salary is second only to five-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher.

But BAR-Honda is just a midlevel team that doesn’t give Villeneuve a chance to win. Headed into the European Grand Prix this weekend, Villeneuve hasn’t won a race since 1997.

Although his contract is up after this year, it’s not clear where the 32-year-old racer will end up.

He’s too expensive for most teams to pursue BAR can’t even afford to resign him at his going rate. Also, there’s no sign that a seat will open at Ferrari, Williams or McLaren, the only teams that can afford him and also put him in a competitive ride.

Where Villeneuve ends up is anyone’s guess.

“I don’t want to wait until I am 50 to be in a position to be competitive again,” he said. “But when you make a decision, you have to see what is available and what your options are, and it is impossible for me to give you an answer until I know what the options really are.

“It is easy to say now, ‘Oh, I only want to drive in these kind of teams,’ but when the question is you drive in another team or you stay at home, then maybe you will change your mind-set.”

Villeneuve is suffering through a miserable fifth season with BAR with just three points and two straight DNFs including two weeks ago at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the track named after his late father.

But a driver in his position, unsure of where he’ll end up and unsure who even wants him in a car, doesn’t really have many choices.

F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone wants Villeneuve to retain a spot on the grid, where he and Schumacher are the only active series champions.

But Ecclestone believes that years of running in the back of the pack have demoralized Villeneuve, and a top ride is the only thing that will rejuvenate the driver.

“How can he motivate himself? He has won the CART series, the world championship. He has won a lot of races,” Ecclestone said. “I imagine he comes to a race and thinks, ‘If I really do a good job, maybe I can qualify 10th, maybe, and maybe in a race I can run eighth or ninth.’ Hey, what difference is it to him if he is 13th or seventh?

“I would like to see him in the Ferrari.”

But that won’t happen because Villeneuve is too proud to be the No. 2 to Schumacher.

“I wouldn’t drive in Rubens Barrichello’s position,” Villeneuve said.

So Villeneuve has to take a long hard look around the paddock and figure out where he can best fit in. He says he’ll take a pay cut if it means driving for a team that can win races.

“If it were a team in a position to bring the results that I want I don’t think that money would be a real problem for me,” he said.

Pollock, a shareholder at BAR, still thinks that team can be among the top three in F1 and has not ruled out finding a way for Villeneuve to remain there.

But the manager is confident other winning teams will want the driver and that a contract with a low-base salary and performance incentives could make Villeneuve an extremely attractive option.

“Top drivers dictate that a lot of money be spent on them,” Pollock said. “But a top driver’s head also dictates that he wants to win. Having made the money in the past, he would be going for a contract where he could win now.”