Jacques Villeneuve burst onto the Formula One scene in 1996 as the Williams 2nd driver. In his first race, the Australian Grand Prix, he took Pole Position and the fastest lap. Then 4 races later Villeneuve had his first win, at the European Grand Prix, at the Nurburgring. Villeneuve has tied the record for the most wins in a rookie season with Lewis Hamilton on 4, and he is the 9th fastest person to record a victory.
Jacques Villeneuve at the Australian Grand Prix
Jacques Joseph Charles Villenueve was born in Quebec, Canada in 1971. Villenueve had racing blood born into him as his father was Gilles Villeneuve. However at this point in Gilles life, he hadn't begun his Formula One career. A big impact in Villeneuve's life was when he was 11, his father was killed in qualifying in the 1982 Belgium Grand Prix in Zolder after he collided with Jochen Mass. 2 years after the death of Gilles, Jacques said to his mother he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father and become a racing driver. His mother told him she would only let him drive karts, if he got his grades up in his worst subject at school, Mathematics. Villeneuve then got his head down and begun to work hard at maths, and eventually he did get the marks he needed, and his mother fulfilled there promise. His mother then allowed him to drive an 100cc kart around a karting track at Imola. Villeneuve impressed the owners so much that he moved up to a 135cc version of the kart, before being so blown away, they allowed the Canadian onto the main track in Formula Four car, all in the same day.
Villeneuve's racing career shot off after this with a lot of help from his grandfather who raced in CART. At the age of 17, Canada and Italy wouldn't allow Villeneuve to obtain his racing license, so he ended up receiving his racing license from Androrra. In 1994 Villeneuve took his racing to the top level by entering CART Indycar. In his rookie season, he managed to finish second in the prestigious Indy 500. He finished the season in 6th position and was awarded rookie of the season. He started his 1995 season well with a win in the first race. Villeneuve continued well throughout the season with highlights as a marvelous win at the Indy 500, as Villeneuve went onto win the CART Indy Car championship that year. This bought Villeneuve to the attention of Sir Frank Williams, of the WilliamsF1 Team. They signed Villeneuve along side experienced Formula One racer, Damon Hill.
Jacques on the podium, after the Hungarian Grand Prix
As I said earlier the 1996 season started well for Villeneuve, and it got better with 4 wins in, Germany, Hungary, Britain and Portugal. However if people thought his rookie season was a blast, his 1997 campaign was even better. He had a new team mate Heinz Harold Frentzen, which left him as team leader for Williams in 1997. It started well with a pole position in Melbourne, and continued throughout the season, with a tight battle with Michael Schumacher driving the blood red Ferrari. It came to the final race in the European Grand Prix, at Jerez. Schumacher went into the race with 78 points and Villeneuve 77. The race got very interesting from qualifying when Heinz Harold Frentzen, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve all set the same time in qualifying (1.21.072). Pole Position was awarded to Villeneuve because he set the time first, with Schumacher in 2nd, Frentzen in third. The race started with Schumacher beating Villeneuve into turn 1. The race was fairly quiet until lap 48. Villeneuve was less than a second behind Schumacher, and into the Dry Sack corner, Villeneuve attempted a move up the inside, and Schumacher, realizing that he was going to be overtaken, turned his car into Villeneuve's car, trying to take him, to add another championship to Schumachers name. However it backfired badly on Schumacher, as he missed the vital parts of the car and hit the sidepod. Schumacher retired and Villeneuve limped to the end in 3rd, with McLaren winning 1 and 2. This effectively gave Villeneuve his only Formula One world championship. You can see below Schumacher's attempted move.
Villeneuve continued to race in Formula One until retiring during the 2006 season. He never really impressed after 1997.
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