The career of Jacques Villeneuve

Jacques Villeneuve was born on the 9 April 1971 in Canada. He is the son of Formula One legend Gilles Villeneuve, who won 6 Grand Prix's and finished runner-up in the 1979 championship before his tragic death at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix. He was named after his uncle, also called Jacques, who was too a racing driver, who had a few DNQ F1 appearances and most notably won the World Championship Snowmobile Derby three times. He wanted to race from when he was 5 but became less interested after his father's death. He began focusing on racing from 1984 onwards after agreeing with his mother that he would first improve his maths marks (relatable).

He tested go-karts at Imola in 1985 and impressed the circuit owners so much that they let him drive a Formula 4 car on the same day. Eventually by 1987 he left home to attend a racing school in Ontario and aged 17 he made his racing career debut in the Italian Touring Car championship with Prema (who are now in F2, and have helped talents such as Leclerc, Piastri, Bearman and Antonelli develop). Over three season he gradually improved, scoring 3 podiums and coming 6th in his final season in the championship. Jacques eventually became dissatisfied with his management and make a career-defining decision to appoint Craig Pollock as his new manager,

Villeneuve wanted to compete with Prema in Formula 3000, but did not have the funding required to compete with the top teams. So he made the bold decision to relocate to Japan, and drive a Toyota car in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship in 1992. He began to show his talent here, winning 3 races and ultimately finishing 2nd in the championship. It was also in this year that he met Barry Green of American CART team Forsythe-Green Racing. He agreed a three-year contract with him and raced in the Atlantic Championship in 1993 to prepare himself for the more powerful and grippier open wheel American cars. He won 5 races and eventually finished 3rd in the championship.

He began the 1994 CART season with a 17th place finish at Surfer's Paradise in Australia, but his first real globally acclaimed performance was at the 1994 Indy 500. He qualified 4th and finished 2nd, earning the Indy 500 Rookie of the Year award. He put together some consistent points scoring form before taking his first CART win at the end of the season at Road America, and finished with a podium at Laguna Seca. He would come 6th with 94 points in his debut season in CART, and the hype around him was starting to build.

He rejected offers from other CART teams and F1 teams to stay with Team Green for 1995. Villeneuve became worried after the car was extremely slow and unreliable in pre-season testing. He won the first race in Miami, but did not finish in 2 of the next 4 races. The crowning moment in his season came at that year's Indy 500 - he managed to overcome a two lap penalty and won the race, becoming the first and only (as of 2025) Canadian to do so. He took the championship lead and scored points in all but one of the remaining rounds to seal the title and become the youngest person ever to win both the Indy 500 and the CART title in the same season.

By early 1995 Williams had become interested in Villeneuve as the replacement for the outgoing David Coulthard, and Villeneuve had his first F1 test at Silverstone in August that year. It was also seen as positive for F1's image if they could lure the CART champion to join the sport. He was 2 seconds off Damon Hill (honestly not bad for a first ever F1 drive!) and signed a 2 year + 1 extension with Williams starting from 1996. He tested over 9,700km in preparation for F1 over various European racing circuits, and was also one of the first drivers to use a computer simulation to learn the tracks.

He partnered Damon Hill in the FW18 in 1996. The car was designed by the fearsome duo of Patrick Head and Adrian Newey so of course it was good! They had a great gearbox design and a powerful, reliable Renault engine. He was not considered a title favourite by the media but became only the third ever driver in F1 history to take pole position at his first start in Melbourne. He led most of the race but sadly an oil leak meant that Hill caught him to take the win, and he still came home in an impressive P2. Unfortunately at the next race in Brazil his inexperience showed as he spun off while Hill took his second win of the season. He followed Hill home for another P2 in Argentina before taking his first F1 victory at the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. He would take 3 more wins that season at Silverstone, Hungary and Estoril along with 5 additional podiums, but went into the season finale needing a Hill DNF to have a chance at the title. Hill won the race while Jacques' tyre came off during the race, forcing him to retire. Williams won the WCC, he finished 2nd in the WDC, and was the first rookie in F1 history to finish 2nd in the WDC and win 4 races in his debut season (before a certain GOAT in 2007...). This was a seriously impressive rookie season though! He definitely looked like a future world champion.

He stayed at Williams for 1997, but Damon Hill was replaced by Heinz-Harald Frentzen. The FW19 was the last car designed by Adrian Newey at Williams, and was also the last Williams to run with a works Renault engine. The car was lighter and smaller than the previous year's and was still a mega car. Villeneuve said that this was his favourite F1 car to drive, but that the operating window was very small which made it difficult to operate (Red Bull these days?). Villeneuve took pole once again in Australia by a whopping 1.7 seconds from his teammate and 2.1 seconds from Schumacher in 3rd! It seemed like Williams would walk the championship with their superior car, but the inconsistency of both drivers + the rise of Ferrari made the championship extremely close. Villeneuve won 7 races while Schumacher won 5 over the course of the season. (Sidenote - 1997 was an amazing season!). He was 9 points ahead of Schumacher with 2 races to go, but at the Japanese Grand Prix got penalized for not slowing down for double waved yellows during practice. This was his third such offense during the season so as a result he was excluded from the race (???? bit harsh). He raced while Williams appealed but ultimately the appeal failed and Schumacher won the race - leaving him 1 point behind for the European Grand Prix at Jerez, the season finale. He, Schumacher and Frentzen all set the same time for pole! A 3 way tie for pole is insane!!!! He started from pole because he set the time first, but a bad start dropped him to third. He began closing on Schumacher after the pit stops before Schumacher did his infamous collision trying to take him out, which backfired horribly and beached his Ferrari. Villeneuve had severe battery damage and limped home in third to win his first WDC. He became the first Canadian world champion and the only man after Mario Andretti to win the F1 WDC, the CART championship and the Indy 500. All at the age of around about 26. Surely it only gets better from here?

Villeneuve said he would leave F1 if they introduced grooved tyres and narrower cars for 1998. So of course F1 introduced both of those things for that season. He stayed at Williams for 1998, but the team had suffered some major losses. Adrian Newey had left for McLaren, Renault had also pulled out of F1 which left them with one year old dodgy Mecachrome engines. The car design of the FW20 was very conservative and Villeneuve was not competitive during the season. He remained teammates with Frentzen and beat him comfortably, scoring 21 points and 2 third places at Hungary and Hockenheim. But it was a disasterous title defense for a Williams team that was sinking after their first winless season in 10 years. (Also a red Williams just looks so so wrong! Ewwwww)

After leaving Williams, Newey wanted Villeneuve to join him at McLaren for the 1999 season, but Jacques said no. (??????) He instead signed a contract with the brand new British American Racing team that was formerly Tyrrell before being purchased by British American Tobacco and his manager Craig Pollock. He became the second highest paid driver in F1 and Villeneuve also wanted to take a risk and build his own team from the ground up, similar to what Michael Schumacher had done with Ferrari. (Another side note: the whole BAR livery thing in 1999 with the two seperate cars and then the zip livery is fantastic stuff). His teammate would be former McLaren test driver Ricardo Zonta. The BAR01 was powered by Supertec engines and was manufactured by Reynard motorsports in a new factory in Brackley. Adrian Reynard even made the bold claim that the team would win a race that season! He was... very wrong. The car was quick and often qualified well but might be the most unreliable thing ever seen in F1. Villeneuve failed to finish his first 11 races!!! (Funny story - Villeneuve and Zonta both bet they could take Eau Rouge at Spa flat this season. They both crashed.) He scored no points and didn't even record the team's highest finish. BAR scored no points and finished last in the WCC (Even Minardi got a point!). It was a totally disasterous first season at BAR.

BAR got a new engine supplier in Honda from 2000, and also got full factory support from the returning Japanese manufacturer. Tension within the team was rising between Reynard and Pollock but the team wanted to "wipe the slate clean" after a terrible 1999. Zonta was retained as Villeneuve's teammate and the first race brought results - 4th for Villeneuve in Australia was his first points in over a season. The improved reliability and power of the Honda engine and the BAR002 ensured Jacques got 3 further 4th places and ultimately finished the season with 17 points and P7 in the WDC - no podiums or wins but still a good step forward for him and the team, who came P5 in the WCC with 20 points. It seemed like things were on the up again...

Villeneuve was heavily linked to other F1 teams for the 2001 season - most notably he was close to a Benetton seat and also had talks with Ferrari, and also considered taking a sabbatical. He agreed to sign a three year extension with BAR however, with a get out clause in case of poor results. He had a new teammate in Olivier Panis this season, and the two French-speaking drivers got on well. The BAR003 was lighter than the previous year's car, and the team had lofty ambitions of finishing 3rd in the WCC and winning a race. This went... about as well as you expect. The car became very reliable but much slower and more unstable than before, and had very poor one lap pace for qualifying. Villeneuve still managed to get the team's first two podium finishes this season, in Spain and Hockenheim. He once again finished P7 in the WDC but only had 12 points this time, and the team took a step back and only finished P6 in the WCC with 17 points.

British American Tobacco eventually fired Craig Pollock for the team's poor results at the start of 2002, and Villeneuve's influence in the team began to decline after Dave Richards was appointed the new team principal. Villeneuve had a race seat offer for 2002 from Flavio Briatore and Renault, but rejected it to stay at BAR (???) and once again Olivier Panis remained as his teammate. The BAR004 was not a good car at all. The car remained slow but became unreliable this year. The team had scored no points by Silverstone before Villeneuve got 4th at a wet race in Silverstone. He only scored 4 points in the whole season and finished P12 in the WDC. BAR only scored 7 points the whole season and regressed again to P8 in the WCC. The situation in the team became even more uncomfortable after Dave Richards publicly stated that the money spent on Jacques' large salary could be used more effectively on research and development.

By this point he had fully regretted staying at BAR because of their lack of results. He had an offer to return to CART in 2003 before returning to F1 in 2004 and 2005 with BAR but they could not sort out the financial details. He decided to remain at BAR for 2003 and was joined by a new teammate in Jenson Button. He had a very poor relationship with Jenson, saying he should be in a boyband instead of F1 (????). This was shown at the season opener is Australia, when he purposefully drove an extra lap instead of pitting to make Button wait stationary behind him (Literally an S-tier hater). He blamed it on "radio problems" but the team didn't believe him (I don't either!) and from them on the relationship deteriorated seriously. The BAR005 had improved performance from the 2002 car but Button thoroughly outperformed Jacques, and it got so bad BAR fired him before the last race of the season in Japan. He only came P16 in the WDC with 6 points. This was rock bottom.

After being released Villeneuve took a sabbatical and considered racing in NASCAR, but no teams approached him. He tried to get drives for 2005 with Williams or BAR, but both would not sign him. He realized that no top team would hire him and eventually after a meeting with Peter Sauber he agreed to race for the Sauber team from 2005 season. However, before this, he was hired by Flavio Briatore for the Renault team for the last 3 races of the season after Jarno Trulli was fired. Flavio wanted to try and get Renault to finish 2nd in the WCC in 2004 but Jacques underperformed. He scored no points and was lapped each race. 

Villeneuve joined Felipe Massa for the 2005 season at Sauber, but the circumstances were difficult. There was a lack of pre-season testing, the car was difficult to handle and there was no money for upgrades. He finished 4th at that year's San Marino Grand Prix and got two further points finishes in the C24 to finish P14 in the WDC with 9 points. The team suffered their lowest finish in the WCC since 2000 with a P8 finish.

BMW purchased the Sauber team in 2006 and Villeneuve was retained and got a new teammate in Nick Heidfeld. Villeneuve had a good relationship with the team and found the F1.06 a very driveable car. However, he had a frosty relationship with team principal Mario Theissen, who often publicaly criticized his lack of performance. He got 7 points in the first 11 races, but was clearly being outperformed by Heidfeld. He eventually was replaced by Robert Kubica after his contract was terminated post German Grand Prix. This ended his Formula One career. He was close to a return with the Stefan Grand Prix team in 2010, but they failed to make the grid.

Jacques Villeneuve definitely has one of the most interesting F1 careers! He peaked so early with his first two seasons with Williams before his career just flamed out at BAR. It's a real shame - Villeneuve was clearly one of the best drivers on the grid during his peak, and arguably has the best rookie season in F1 history (along with Lewis). A combination of attitude issues and poor career choices ultimately cost him. I think he should have at least won more than one championship during his career - his natural talent was undeniable. Still, his career is one of my favourite in F1 history - and as someone that wears glasses he's an icon!