"I have great memories here, definitely. But it's strange to be here and not racing on an oval," said Jacques Villeneuve, the 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner who is back at the Brickyard for the U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday.

Villeneuve left the CART series for Formula One the year after his victory at Indianapolis. Juan Pablo Montoya, last year's Indy 500 winner, also departed CART and is back with Villeneuve and the 20 other F1 drivers who will begin practicing Friday.

The 13-turn, 2.6-mile course includes part of Indy's famed oval along with a twisting road course through the infield.

"It's a fun track to drive, but it's not very interesting. There's no corner where your heartbeat goes up," Villeneuve said Thursday. "It's more like playing with go-karts with your friends, but you have the long straight, so that's a good thing."

Michael Schumacher, who already has clinched his fourth series championship, won last year's race at Indianapolis. It was the first F1 race in the United States in nine years.

Schumacher dominated the 73-lap race, beating Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello by 12 seconds. Villeneuve, trailing third-place Heinz-Harald Frentzen by a half-second on the next-to-last lap, finished fourth after his brakes locked on an unsuccessful pass in the infield portion of the course.

"The infield isn't exciting," Villeneuve said of the slow, tight turns. "But you can work yourself closer to someone to have a shot at them on the straight. ... If you were just quick in the straight but very slow in the corners, then you couldn't race anyone, and vice versa. So that made it actually a lot of fun."

Villeneuve, whose best finish this season were thirds in Spain and Germany, has not won a race since 1997, when he was the series champion. He is the only former CART and Formula One champion currently driving.

Montoya, a teammate of Schumacher's younger brother, Ralf, is coming off his first Formula One victory two weeks ago in the Italian GP. Including the event in Monza, Montoya has started from the pole in three of the past four races.

Qualifications for the next-to-last race of the race will be on Saturday.

"The Indy 500 is a completely different race," Montoya said. "It's a long race. You have to take care of the car most of the time and you try to sprint right at the end."

Although Montoya has been fast since joining the Williams-BMW team, his Formula One development his been gradual.

"I think the biggest adjustment I had to make was really getting my hands on the car, to really work with the team to maximize what I needed on the setup," the Colombian said. "When the setup has been right, we've been competitive."

Attrition has been a big problem this season for Montoya, who has failed to finish in 10 of the 15 races. Besides the victory in Italy, he was runner-up twice and was fourth and eighth in the other races he completed.

"Every time you're out there, you're learning something new," he said. "So you're always evolving and becoming a better driver. ... When I won the Indy 500, I was good at everything. Now you have to do that every week."

He said the victory in Italy was a big relief.