Get to know F1 Drivers: Jacques Villeneuve

 Hi, this week I'm introducing Jacques Villeneuve

Jacques Villeneuve OQ (born 9 April 1971) is a Canadian professional racing driver and amateur musician who won the 1997 Formula One World Championship with Williams. In addition to Formula One (F1) he has competed in various other forms of motor racing, winning the 1995 Indianapolis 500 and the 1995 PPG Indy Car World Series. He is the son of former Ferrari racing driver Gilles Villeneuve. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 27 Ford Mustang for Team Hezeberg.

Early life

On 9 April 1971, Villeneuve was born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, a small town outside of Montreal in the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec. He is the son of snowmobile and future Ferrari racer Gilles Villeneuve and his wife Joann Barthe. Villeneuve has a sister, Melanie, and a half sister Jessica. His uncle, Jacques Sr., whom he was named after also competed in motor racing. Villeneuve spent most of his formative years travelling with the racing fraternity with his parents.

Aged seven in 1978, he and his family relocated from Berthierville, Quebec, to the small principality of Monaco on the French Riviera in France's south-east coast close to the border with Italy to be nearer to Ferrari's headquarters. On the advice of driver Patrick Tambay, Villeneuve was sent to the French-speaking Swiss private boarding Collège Alpin International Beau Soleil by his mother, which he attended from the ages of 12 (1983) to 17 (1988). He excelled in BASE jumping, ice hockey, motocross and water skiing. Villeneuve left the school by mutual consent between his mother and the school owners.

Early racing career

Villeneuve's mother was aware from when he was five that he wanted to race, and he went go-karting with his uncle several times in Canada. In May 1982, his father died in an accident with Jochen Mass during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit Zolder. Jacques became less interested in motor racing after that, fearing the sport's dangers. In 1984, he asked his mother if he could do motor racing like his father. Villeneuve's mother agreed to let him race on the condition he improved his academic performance in one of his weakest subjects, mathematics. Though his mother preferred him to do a course in aerodynamic or mechanical engineering, she did not discourage her son from pursuing racing. In early September 1985, Villeneuve was invited by a SAGIS employee to race in 100 cc go-kart at Italy's Imola Circuit. He impressed the track owners so much that they let him test a 135 cc kart and then a Formula Four car. In July 1986, his uncle enrolled him in the Jim Russell Racing Driver School in Mont Tremblant, where he passed a three-day course driving a Formula Ford 1600 car from Van Diemen.

In mid-1987, he left his family to attend the Spenard-David Racing School in Shannonville, Ontario to hone his abilities under Richard Spenard. Villeneuve did not have the money to pay for the course and his mother would not fund it because she thought Jacques finishing his education was more important. He, therefore, worked in a mechanics' training programme allowing students to learn racing in return for garage painting. Aged 17, Villeneuve was invited to make his car racing debut in the Italian Touring Car Championship, driving a Salerno Course-entered Group N Alfa Romeo 33 car for three rounds of the 1988 season. The Canadian and Italian authorities would not grant him a licence since he was a year younger than their minimum age requirement, so he obtained an international racing licence in Andorra with Canadian Automobile Sport Clubs aid. Villeneuve performed poorly in each of the three rounds.

The car Villeneuve drove in the 1989 Italian Formula Three Championship

He went on to sign a three-year contract to drive a Reynard-Alfa Romeo car for Prema in the Italian Formula Three Championship, a deal that was aided by the squad obtaining sponsorship from the Camel cigarette company. Initially struggling to drive a Formula 3 car, he enrolled at the Magione Driving School. Under Henry Morrogh's direction, he gradually developed his character and driving technique. Villeneuve did not qualify five times, failed to finish three of the eleven races, and scored no points. In the 1990 season, he qualified for each of the 12 rounds and scored ten points for 14th in the Drivers' Championship. Villeneuve was considered a title favourite for the 1991 championship. A late-season switch to the Ralt RT35 chassis failed to improve his performance, but he still finished sixth overall with 20 points and 3 podiums. In late 1991, Villeneuve finished eighth in both the Macau Grand Prix and the Formula 3 Fuji Cup.

Dissatisfied with his management in 1991, he asked former Beausoleil sports administrator and motor racing promoter Craig Pollock to take over his management three times. For the 1992 season, he wanted to compete in Formula 3000 in Europe with Prema, but did not have the funding to compete with the top teams. Villeneuve accepted an offer to relocate to Japan and drive a Toyota 032F car for the TOM'S squad in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship in 1992 following advice from Tambay. He felt the Japanese series was almost as good as the Italian one, and he did not want to remain in Europe. Villeneuve was the only driver to receive works support from TOM'S, and he got driver training. He won three races and finished no lower than sixth nine times, earning second in the Drivers' Championship and 45 points. People in the racing world observed that ten years after his father's death, Villeneuve was becoming a well-known racer. In August, Pollock negotiated an contract for Villeneuve to enter the Formula Atlantic street event at Trois-Rivières in the 1992 Atlantic Championship. He finished third in the No. 49 Swift DB-4-Toyota car lent by the ComPred team. In addition, he also tested a C Class Toyota that year and was mentored by driver Roland Ratzenberger.

Four months later, Villeneuve accepted an invite to share a C Class TOM'S-entered Toyota TS010 car with Eddie Irvine and Tom Kristensen at the final round of the 1992 All Japan Sports Prototype Car Endurance Championship at Mine Circuit, finishing fourth. He was fourth at the Macau Grand Prix for TOM'S. In Trois-Rivières, Villeneuve met crew chief Barry Green who wanted a driver for his new Forsythe-Green Racing squad. He accepted a three-year contract from Green with personal sponsorship from sports marketing arm Player's November 1992. He raced the lower-tier 1993 Atlantic Championship which featured more powerful cars with more grip and downforce to become better acquainted with American open-wheel racing before progressing to Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) in 1994. Villeneuve built a close working relationship with aerodynamicist Tony Cicale. Driving the No. 10 Ralt RT40-Toyota car, Villeneuve won five races and finished in the top three four times for third overall and 185 points after a season-long duel with David Empringham and teammate Claude Bourbonnais. He was named the series' Rookie of the Year, and ended 1993 retiring from the Macau Grand Prix driving a March Racing Ralt 93C-Fiat car.

1994-1995 CART

Villeneuve's 1995 Indianapolis 500 winning car

Villeneuve began participating in CART in the 1994 season for Forsythe-Green Racing, driving the No. 12 Reynard 94I-Ford XB vehicle after Green obtained sponsorship. He debuted at the season-opening Australian FAI Indycar Grand Prix at Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, starting eighth and finishing 17th after colliding with Stefan Johansson. In the season's next round, the Valvoline 200 at Phoenix International Raceway, he was involved in a five-car accident which saw him sustain a side collision with Hiro Matsushita before being struck by Dominic Dobson. Qualifying fourth for his first Indianapolis 500, Villeneuve finished second, earning Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honors as the highest-finishing rookie. Villeneuve finished ninth or higher in six of the next nine rounds, before beating Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi in the close finish to the Texaco/Havoline 200 at Road America road course in his first CART victory. He placed seventh and third in the final two rounds ending the year with Rookie of the Year honors and was sixth in the Drivers' Championship with 94 points.

Before the 1995 season, he rejected offers from fellow CART teams and some Formula One (F1) squads and remained at the renamed Team Green driving the renumbered No. 27 Reynard 95I-Ford XB. Before the season, Villeneuve and his team were concerned, as their car had been unreliable and under-performed in pre-season testing. He won the season-opening Grand Prix of Miami after starting eighth, but he only finished two of the next four races. His season highlight was the Indianapolis 500. Though Villeneuve was penalised two laps for overtaking the pace car, he re-took the lead after fellow Canadian Scott Goodyear failed to serve a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for also passing the pace car. Winning just his second Indianapolis 500 start, Villeneuve took the Drivers' Championship lead. Villeneuve went on to win both the Texaco/Havoline 200 at Road America and the Grand Prix of Cleveland, also scoring points in all but one of the remaining rounds to clinch the title at the final race in Laguna Seca. He won the championship with 172 points, four victories and six pole positions.

Formula One career

1996-1998 Williams

In early 1995, the Williams F1 team and engine supplier Renault became interested in Villeneuve replacing the outgoing David Coulthard. Bernie Ecclestone, F1's commercial rights holder, saw this as an opportunity to lure Villeneuve from CART although Team Green wanted him to remain in America. Technical director Patrick Head and team principal Frank Williams gave Villeneuve a test in a FW17 car at Britain's Silverstone Circuit in August 1995. He lapped two seconds slower than driver Damon Hill. Negotiations between Villeneuve's representatives in mid-1995 led to Villeneuve signing a contract for 1996 and 1997 with the option for the 1998 season. He was sent by Frank Williams to cover 6,000 mi (9,700 km) in testing during the six-month pre-season period testing on permanent European racing circuits, and he also prepared by learning the circuits on a simulation computer game.

He drove the docile FW18 car equipped with a powerful, reliable Renault engine and a better gearbox. Villeneuve built up a rapport with his race engineer Jock Clear and learnt from his teammate Hill. Although not considered a title favourite by the media, he contended for the World Drivers' Championship with Hill but never led the standings. Villeneuve's debut at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix saw him become the second driver ever to claim pole position on his first start, and despite an oil leak, he finished second. He beat Ferrari's Michael Schumacher in the European Grand Prix three races later for his maiden F1 victory. Villeneuve scored points in eight of the next eleven events and won the British Grand Prix, the Hungarian Grand Prix and the Portuguese Grand Prix. Entering the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix, he had nine fewer points than Hill, requiring him to win the event and for Hill to score no points to claim the title. However, Villeneuve's right-rear tyre came off his car, forcing him to retire from the race. He finish runner-up to Hill in the drivers' standings with 78 points in his maiden season. Villeneuve was the first rookie to achieve four Grand Prix victories in his debut year and the first to finish runner-up overall.

Villeneuve driving for Williams at the 1996 Canadian Grand Prix

Before the 1997 season, Hill moved to the Arrows team, resulting in Villeneuve's promotion to lead driver. He was paired with Heinz-Harald Frentzen. He and Schumacher vied for that year's World Drivers' Championship and variously shared the title lead. Villeneuve trained extensively and drove an aerodynamically efficient and powerful FW19 car designed around him. He won seven Grands Prix and qualified on pole position eight times in the first 14 races. At the season's penultimate race, the Japanese Grand Prix, he had a chance to win the championship but was banned for overtaking under yellow flag conditions twice during practice. He was allowed to race under appeal but was disqualified from fifth when the appeal was rejected. Before the season-ending European Grand Prix, Villeneuve had 77 points, one fewer than Schumacher, requiring him to finish in the top six and ahead of Schumacher to win the championship. During qualifying, Villeneuve, Schumacher and Frentzen all set the exact same lap time, but Villeneuve started from pole position per F1 regulations because he was the first driver to set the time. Villeneuve and Schumacher were involved in a collision that saw Schumacher careen into a gravel trap, giving the title to Villeneuve. He was the second driver (after Mario Andretti) to win the F1 World Championship, the CART title and the Indianapolis 500. He was also Canada's first F1 World Champion.

Villeneuve threatened to leave F1 and return to CART if F1 introduced grooved tyres and narrower cars for the 1998 season. Though these changes were adopted, he remained at Williams with Frentzen. Villeneuve's FW20 car had one-year old Mecachrome-branded engines after Renault's withdrawal from F1 after the 1997 season, which transported to be noncompetitive. He scored points at nine Grands Prix with a season-high third at each of the German Grand Prix and at the following Hungarian Grand Prix. During practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, he lost control of his car in Eau Rouge corner and crashed backwards into the barrier at approximately 170 mph (270 km/h). Villeneuve was unhurt. With 21 points, he finished fifth in the Drivers' Championship.

1999-2003 British American Racing (BAR)

He left Williams following the 1998 season. McLaren technical director Adrian Newey, who liked Villeneuve's performance and who Villeneuve respected, offered him employment for the 1999 season, but Villeneuve rejected it. He instead signed a contract to drive with the new British American Racing (BAR) team founded by Pollock and British American Tobacco following their late 1997 purchase of the financially struggling Tyrrell team. Villeneuve joined the team because he sought to emulate Schumacher's style of basing a team around him and employing highly skilled people to get from the bottom of the running order to the top.

Villeneuve was joined at BAR by former McLaren test driver Ricardo Zonta for most of the season and then by Mika Salo for three Grands Prix. His BAR 01 car was efficient and fast but chronically unreliable. He failed to finish each of the first eleven races due to either mechanical trouble or crashing. Villeneuve was only able to finish four Grands Prix with a best finish of eighth at the Italian Grand Prix. Villeneuve qualified a season-high fifth at the San Marino Grand Prix and was briefly third in the Spanish Grand Prix two events later before retiring. During qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, he suffered a high-speed crash through Eau Rouge corner, which destroyed his car but left him uninjured. He tallied no points towards the Drivers' Championship.

Villeneuve competing for British American Racing at the 2000 Belgian Grand Prix.

For the 2000 season, his BAR 002 car had a more reliable and powerful works Honda engine, and Zonta was again his teammate. Villeneuve finished fourth at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and scored two more points by placing fifth at the San Marino Grand Prix two races later. He also finished fourth at the French Grand Prix, the Austrian Grand Prix and the United States Grand Prix. Villeneuve scored points in the final two races by finishing sixth at the Japanese Grand Prix and fifth at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Overall, his performances had improved from 1999 due to a better built and more reliable car. Villeneuve finished the season seventh in the Drivers' Championship with 17 points.

There were rumours of Villeneuve leaving the BAR team after 2000. He talked to Benetton, Ferrari and McLaren about racing with them in the 2001 championship. Villeneuve later admitted McLaren was not an option since his management team got accused of conducting early season publicity and he disliked McLaren's corporate methodology. Villeneuve also considered taking a sabbatical, but he ultimately signed a three-year contract extension with BAR in July 2000. He obtained a get-out clause enabling him to leave BAR should they under-perform.

He was joined by Olivier Panis, and the 003 car he drove was approximately 30 kg (66 lb) lighter than the 002 chassis. Villeneuve was cordial with his teammate since they could talk to each other in French, and set himself the goal of winning a race and finishing third in the Drivers' Championship. His car was fairly reliable but lacked rear grip and straight-line speed due to an underpowered Honda engine. At the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Villeneuve struck the rear of Ralf Schumacher's car, launching him into the air. One of Villeneuve's car's wheels struck marshal Graham Beveridge, killing him. Villeneuve achieved BAR's first two podium results, finishing third at both the Spanish Grand Prix and the German Grand Prix. He finished the season seventh in the Drivers' Championship with 12 points. Although he scored five fewer points than the year before, Villeneuve qualified higher than Panis eleven times in 2001.

Before the 2002 season Villeneuve remained at BAR. He talked to team principal Flavio Briatore, who offered him a seat at Renault in lieu of Jenson Button but Villeneuve rejected it. Villeneuve ultimately opted to remain at BAR due to pressure from Honda, and he again partnered with Panis. He became uncomfortable when new BAR team principal David Richards publicly mentioned that many spent on Villeneuve's high salary could be better used for research and development. The BAR 004 chassis proved to be more unreliable than the year before and slower due to an under-powered Honda engine. He scored four points for 12th in the Drivers' Championship with a fourth place at the British Grand Prix being his season's best result. Villeneuve regretted remaining at BAR due to the lack of results, and he was offered a contract to join Team Player's in CART for the 2003 championship before returning to BAR for the 2004 and 2005 F1 seasons. The deal was pushed by Richards but not agreed upon because Villeneuve's and Pollock's financial settlements were too great for team owner Gerald Forsythe to be willing to take on.

He decided to remain at BAR for the 2003 season, and was partnered with Button. Villeneuve's BAR 005 car had a more powerful but bulky Honda engine. He initially had a poor relationship with Button, not speaking to him and saying that Button "should be in a boy band". Their relationship did not improve after the season-opening Australian Grand Prix when Villeneuve was due to make a pit stop but drove an additional lap when Button was due to make his, leaving Button stationary behind Villeneuve. Though he blamed it on "radio problems". Button and Richards hinted their disbelief in his execution.Villeneuve was outperformed by his teammate and retired eight times due to mechanical faults. He finished sixth at both the Brazilian Grand Prix and the Italian Grand Prix. Before the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix, Villeneuve was informed by Richards he was no longer needed. He was replaced by test driver Takuma Sato. He was 16th in the Drivers' Championship with 6 points.

2004-2006 Renault and Sauber

Villeneuve took a sabbatical after BAR released him. He thought of taking up NASCAR as a new challenge, but no teams approached him. After speaking to senior officials from BAR and Williams, Villeneuve believed that they would want to resign him to their respective teams, but neither move occurred. When he realised no competitive team would employ him, he and Pollock met Sauber team owner Peter Sauber in Hinwil in mid-2004. Impressed with Sauber's professionalism, he signed a two-year contract the next month to drive for Sauber from the 2005 season and help them attract new sponsors and partners.

Before his tenure at Sauber began, Villeneuve was employed by Briatore to help Renault claim second from BAR in the World Constructors' Championship by scoring the maximum number of points in the 2004 season's final three races following the dismissal of Jarno Trulli for performing poorly. Sauber was comfortable in letting Villeneuve drive for Renault because both teams used Michelin tyres. Driving the R24 car, he finished all three events but under-performed and was lapped each time. Villeneuve scored no points and was unclassified in the Drivers' Championship.

Villeneuve qualifying for Sauber at the 2005 United States Grand Prix.

At Sauber, he used a C24 chassis and was teammates with Felipe Massa. A lack of both pre-season testing and money for car development caused Villeneuve to have a difficult handling car. He did not have a good relationship with the team because he was not allowed to give feedback on car setup due to Willy Rampf's influence. Villeneuve finished a season-high fourth at the San Marino Grand Prix and scored more points in eighth at the French Grand Prix and sixth at the Belgian Grand Prix. He was 14th in the Drivers' Championship with 9 points.

For the 2006 championship, he stayed at the renamed BMW Sauber after BMW purchased the team. Nick Heidfeld was his teammate. The atmosphere within the team made Villeneuve content, and he was happy with BMW's involvement. He found the less electronically dependent and less refined aerodynamically F1.06 car more driveable. Team principal Mario Theissen criticised Villeneuve for not achieving decent results, thus failing to please BMW's board of directors. Despite retiring three times, he accumulated 7 points from the first 11 races, ranking him 15th in the Drivers' Championship. At the German Grand Prix, Villeneuve sustained muscle pains in an accident exiting a corner. Shortly afterward, Theissen terminated his contract and replaced him with Robert Kubica. He did not want to be part of a shootout between himself and Kubica, and saw his release as a precursor to his future, saying "Screw this, It's time to get on with the rest of my life." Villeneuve twice failed to return to F1, first with Stefan Grand Prix in the 2010 season, then with his team in partnership with Durango for the following year.

Villeneuve racing at the 2006 Canadian Grand Prix for the BMW Sauber

Post Formula One career

He explored NASCAR after exiting F1, talking to Roush Racing owner Jack Roush who agreed to help Villeneuve obtain Truck Series experience before progressing to the Busch Series in 2007 on the condition of a sponsorship agreement. Before that, he made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut with Peugeot in the 2007 edition informing team manager Serge Saulnier that he wanted to complete the Triple Crown of Motorsport. Sharing the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1)-class No. 7 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP car with Marc Gené and Nicolas Minassian, Villeneuve retired after 338 laps with engine injection trouble. He entered into a partnership with Bill Davis Racing (BDR) to enter the 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series' last seven events in its No. 27 Toyota Tundra in anticipation of racing full-time in 2008. Villeneuve finished outside the top ten in all seven events for 42nd overall with 615 points. That same year, he drove two races in the Nextel Cup Series (the UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway and the Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix) in BDR's No. 27 Toyota, finishing 21st and 41st respectively.

He accepted an invitation to enter 2015 Stock Car Brasil's season-opening Autódromo Internacional Ayrton Senna round alongside Zonta in Shell Racing's No. 10 Chevrolet Sonic, placing 21st. Villeneuve signed a contract to replace Heidfeld and partner with Stéphane Sarrazin at Venturi Grand Prix in the 2015–16 season of the all-electric Formula E series. Villeneuve had observed Formula E intently throughout 2014, admiring its bumpy city tracks. Guido Pastor called him to test a car, after which he got selected to drive. Villeneuve finished outside the top ten in the first two races and failed to start the Punta del Este ePrix due to an accident during qualifying. His relationship with Venturi cooled thereafter and they agreed to terminate their working relationship early in January 2016. Villeneuve signed a one-race agreement to return to rallycross in the 2018 season. He drove a Subaru Rally Team USA-entered WRX STi Supercar at the World RX of Canada (part of the Americas Rallycross Championship). He failed to qualify for the final following two accidents sustained during the second semi-final.

For the 2019 season, Villeneuve shared Scuderia Baldini 27's GT3 Pro-class No. 27 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo with Giancarlo Fisichella and Stefano Gai in the Italian GT Championship, finishing fourth at the 3 Hours of Misano and second at the 3 Hours of Vallelunga. He raced as a guest driver at the Ring Knutstorp and Karlskoga Motorstadion rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia in a MTech Competition-entered Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, placing in the top ten in the second race of both rounds. That year, he made his debut in NASCAR Whelen Euro Series in the Elite 1 Division. Villeneuve drove the No. 32 Go Fas Racing Chevrolet, finishing the season eighth in points with 431 scored, two pole positions and seven top-tens. For the 2020 season, he entered that year's Whelen Euro Series with FEED Vict Racing, a team owned by him and Patrick Lemarié. Driving four rounds in the No. 5 car, he achieved two top fives for 104 points (21st overall) in the Elite 1 Division. He drove Academy Motorsport's No. 5 car in the 2021 Whelen Euro Series, achieving his first two series victories in both races of the season's final round at Vallelunga, and scoring 331 points for ninth in the points standings with two wins and four top-ten finishes.

Villeneuve driving a Peugeot 208 Supercar at the 2014 World RX of Great Britain

Non racing ventures and personal life

Villeneuve began writing lyrics while he was driving in Japan, and purchased a guitar in 1996. When he became uncertain whether he would remain at Sauber for the 2006 F1 season in November 2005, he elected to rent a professional recording studio in Paris in order to better hear his music. Travelling to England to record with the Tenebrae Choir, Villeneuve recorded nearly every day for a month before stopping to prioritise motor racing. That same year, he released his debut French single, "Accepterais-tu", and an acoustic rock album Private Paradise with 13 songs (nine in French and four in English) in 2007. Six songs each were written by Villeneuve and his friends; he also performed a cover of Women Come, Women Go by Gazebo. Villeneuve collaborated with vocalists Steve Smith and Amélie Veille. The album debuted at No. 49 on the Quebec pop charts and received negative media reviews. It sold 233 copies in Quebec and 836 in North America.

He was a guest on the 6 June 1995 and 2 June 1998 episodes of the Late Show with David Letterman. Villeneuve made a cameo appearance as a racing driver in the 2001 film Driven. He carried the Olympic torch in Old Montreal during the 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay in December 2009. Villeneuve also carried the Olympic flag at the opening ceremony. Villeneuve was employed by Disney France in late 2010, spending two days recording the French-language voice of a racing announcer for the 2011 Pixar animated film Cars 2. He analysed the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix for the British television channel Sky Sports F1. Since 2013, Villeneuve has commentated for the pay-TV services Sky Sport in Italy and Canal+ in France. He co-designed the Area 27 racing track in Okanagan, British Columbia. He was interviewed on the Dirty Side of the Track podcast in July, 2022.

Villeneuve carrying the Olympic flag into BC Place during the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

He was engaged firstly to the Montreal college student Sandrine Gros D'Aillon, then to Australian pop singer Dannii Minogue and later American ballerina Ellen Green. However, Villeneuve's first marriage was to Parisian Johanna Martinez in May 2006. They had two children before divorcing in June 2009. In June 2012, he married the Brazilian Camila Andrea López Lillo, with whom he has two children. Villeneuve has a son with his current girlfriend Giulia Marra.

Public image and personality

Journalist Gerald Donaldson describes Villeneuve as "engagingly eccentric, opinionated and outspoken" and one who "defied convention and challenged authority, saying exactly what he thought in an era when drivers were expected to express only sweet-talking platitudes." He was popular with the European press for his reliance to speak his mind in a time of political correctness. He publicly bemoaned F1's commercialised and commodified image, the sport's structure, focus on cheaper, younger, corporate groomed drivers, and the manufacturing of driver personalities by corporations so as not to impugn their reputation by drivers voicing their thoughts and opinions through the media. Villeneuve frequently dyed his hair in various colours and sported grunge street wear. His behaviour earned him multiple cautions from F1's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, for bringing the series into disrepute. However, Max Mosley, the association's president, commented that Villeneuve's controversies would benefit him when he was no longer successful.

Villeneuve's star on Canada's Walk of Fame

He was voted the winner of the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy in 1996, and both the Lou Marsh Trophy and the Lionel Conacher Award in 1995 and 1997. Villeneuve received the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy for 1997 as the most successful British or Commonwealth driver over the course of a season. In April 1998, he was appointed Officer of the National Order of Quebec but collected the honour at the following year's ceremony due to his racing commitments. He was added to Canada's Walk of Fame two months later. In December 2010, Villeneuve was inducted into the athlete category of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. He was added to both the FIA Hall of Fame and the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame seven and eight years later respectively.

Driving ability

Journalist Mark Hughes describes Villeneuve's driving as "spectacular" and "hard-charging". Villeneuve frequently went past the edge of the available track to increase his momentum as much as possible. He provided his engineers with suggestions that Maurice Hamilton wrote were "so far from the norm to the point of diametrically opposed to standard practice, sometimes giving the impression of being pursued just for the hell of it." Villeneuve prefers driving on slick tyres and with no electronic driver aids. He found driver aids difficult and thus ran with less traction control than his teammates since he could not deal with either the anti-lock system on the rear brakes or heavy traction control. This required Villeneuve to modify his driving style and take fewer risks until his exit from F1 in 2006. He switched from wearing spectacles in his helmet to contact lenses in 1994 after his spectacles vibrated slightly on minor bumps in Indianapolis.

Max Verstappen (left) and Jacques Villeneuve (right) at the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix