Jacques Joseph Charles Villeneuve born on April 9th, 1971 in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada is a famous Canadian racing driver. Villeneuve is the son of the reputed F1 racer Gilles Villeneuve, who died racing during qualifying rounds at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix. At the time of the tragic event Villeneuve was just eleven years old.
Undeterred by his father's death Jacques Villeneuve still chose to become a racer and attended the reputed racing school in all of North America run by run by Jim Russell. Later he went to Richard Spenard Formula 2000 racing school at Shannonville, Canada. A keen student, Jacques always excelled in his classes and demonstrated his prowess for racing.
Making his grand debut in Italian Formula 3 Championship in 1989 he went on to race for two more years until 1991 and accomplished spectacular results with best podium finishes - twice in second place and twice in third place.
An interesting race during 1992 took place at Le Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres, Quebec where the two Jacques - uncle and the nephew - participated in the same race. Uncle Jacques, already a local hero who used to thrill his racing fans, faced a new challenger in Jacques, the son of famous Giles. In an exciting finish the new challenger Jacques beat his uncle by finishing third in a very memorable race the Canadians will remember for a long time to come.
Continuing his amazing run of successes in racing, Jacques again in 1992 Japanese Formula 3 championship series, proved his racing abilities by capturing 3 victories, a second place finish, and five third place finishes. During 1993 North American Toyota Atlantic series, Villeneuve won five races finishing third in the standings. The following year he repeated his victory at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin and was the 1994 Rookie of the Year. Meanwhile Jacques sought the services of Craig Pollock, his ex-school teacher at Beau-Soleil in Switzerland, as personal manager to manage his racing career more effectively.
After joining the Williams team in 1996, Jacques Villeneuve demonstrated his impressive racing talents winning all the three races in an brilliant manner, 1995 CART, 1997 F1, and Indianapolis 500. He thus became the third driver in history to accomplish the feat by winning all the three races. The other two racers are Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi.
Interestingly in one of the races he finished second despite an oil leak and further team orders caused him to slow down and allowed team mate Damon Hill to pass by. That year he won four races and finished as the season's runner-up in the Driver’s Championship to Hill. His second season in 1997 was even more spectacular as he became Formula One world champion by claiming 7 wins, 10 poles, 8 podiums, and 81 points. He won the title in a dramatic manner by beating Ferrari superstar Michael Schumacher in the final race of the year at Jerez.
Jacques in 1999 joined the British American Racing {BAR} team, co-founded by his personal manager Craig Pollock. He then moved out of it in 2003 only to join Sauber team in 2005 and later left Sauber in mid-2006 season. In his 2007 season Villeneuve might move over to NASCAR at the NEXTEL Cup level.
Jacques Villeneuve was honored with an induction into Canada's Walk of Fame. He was given the Lou Marsh Trophy in 1995 and 1997 and was named Canada's Athlete of the Year. Villeneuve was also honored with the National Order of Quebec in 1998.
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