Jacques
Villeneuve

Jacques Villeneuve was born on 9 April 1971 in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, in the Canadian province of Quebec. His father was the Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve, and his uncle Jacques Villeneuve Sr. also raced. The family moved to Monaco in 1978. At 17 he made his car racing debut in the Italian touring car championship in 1988, and he then moved on to Italian and Japanese Formula 3, finishing second overall in Japan in 1992. In 1993 he took third place in the Atlantic Championship. He joined the American CART series in 1994, finished second in his first Indianapolis 500, won a race and ended the year sixth in the standings. In 1995 he won the Indianapolis 500 for Team Green and took the CART title, with four victories over the season.

Villeneuve moved to Williams in Formula One for 1996. On his debut in Australia he started from pole position and finished second. He took his first win at the European Grand Prix, and with four victories he ended the year as runner-up to his team-mate Damon Hill. In 1997 he won seven races and fought Michael Schumacher for the championship. The two collided at the final round, the European Grand Prix, Schumacher ended up in the gravel trap, and Villeneuve became champion, the first Canadian to do so. He was the second driver after Mario Andretti to win the Formula One title, the CART title and the Indianapolis 500. In 1998 he stayed with Williams and finished fifth in the championship, with third places in Germany and Hungary.

In 1999 he joined the new BAR team and scored no points that season. He finished seventh in the championship in both 2000 and 2001, and in 2001 he took third places in Spain and Germany, the team's first podium finishes. A fourth place in Britain was his best result of 2002. In 2003 he finished sixth in Brazil and Italy, and BAR parted with him before the final round in Japan. In 2004 he drove the last three races for Renault without scoring. He raced for Sauber in 2005, finishing 14th in the standings with fourth place in San Marino as his best result. In 2006 he drove for BMW Sauber and was replaced by Robert Kubica shortly after the German Grand Prix.

In total Villeneuve started 163 Formula One races, winning 11, standing on the podium 23 times and taking 13 pole positions. After Formula One he raced for Peugeot at Le Mans, finishing second in 2008, and won the 1000 km of Spa the same year. He also competed in NASCAR, in the World Rallycross Championship and in Formula E. In 2014 he returned to the Indianapolis 500 and finished 14th. He received the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy for 1997 and is a member of the FIA Hall of Fame.

Source: Wikipedia, “Jacques Villeneuve”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.