Jacques Joseph Charles Villeneuve (, born April 9, 1971 in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec) is a Canadian automobile racing driver. He is the son of legendary Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve. Jacques Villeneuve is notable for winning the 1995 CART Championship, the 1995 Indianapolis 500 and the 1997 Formula One Championship. Alongside Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi, the Canadian is one of the rare drivers to achieve all three.

Following two successful years in CART, Villeneuve moved into Formula One with the front running Williams team, alongside Damon Hill. In his debut season, Villeneuve challenged Hill for the title, winning four races and taking the fight to the final round in Japan. But the Canadian retired and Hill won the title. Villeneuve, however, did win the following year's title, this time challenging Michael Schumacher and once again taking it to the final round in Jerez. In the race, the two collided, resulting in Schumacher's retirement and subsequent disqualification from the 1997 World Championship, with Villeneuve going on to take third place, and the title.

1997 would be the last year in which Villeneuve would finish in the top three of the Drivers' Championship, as Renault had pulled out of Formula One in 1998 and Villeneuve's Williams team were left with the less competitive Mecachrome engines. Villeneuve moved to the newly formed British American Racing team in 1999 and stayed there for the next four seasons but, following poor results he was replaced by former British Formula Three Champion Takuma Sato. After a short run with Renault at the end of 2004, Villeneuve moved to the Sauber team for the 2005 season where he was outscored by his less experienced teammate Felipe Massa. The Sauber team were bought out by BMW for the following season and Villeneuve struggled to score points, taking seven points from eleven rounds before suffering an injury in Germany. The Canadian was replaced by Robert Kubica and soon BMW and Villeneuve parted company.

Outside of Formula One, Villeneuve has taken on two new careers: in sportscar racing, racing for Peugeot in the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans and jumping to NASCAR in August 2007, and in music, so far releasing one album titled "Private Paradise".

Jacques Villeneuve was born in the Canadian city of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu to then soon to be Formula One driver Gilles and his wife Joann Villeneuve on April 9, 1971. Although Villeneuve was born in Canada, he was in fact raised in Monaco. Jacques also has two sisters: Melanie and Jessica Villeneuve, the latter being a half sister. As well as his father, Jacques' uncle, Jacques Sr., was a racing driver - although Jacques Sr. didn't achieve the same level of success in Formula One as his brother Gilles did, the Canadian did however become the first driver to win a CART race in the sport's history in 1984 at Road America. When Villeneuve was eleven years old, his father was killed during the qualifying session for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder following a collision with Jochen Mass.

When not racing, Villeneuve lives between Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland and Montreal, Canada. Villeneuve was among the first group inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. He was also named Canada's Athlete of the Year, receiving the Lou Marsh Trophy in 1995 and 1997. In 1998, he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec.

Villeneuve was previously engaged to Australian singer Dannii Minogue in the late 1990s and was once engaged to American ballerina Elly Green. He married his Parisienne girlfriend Johanna Martinez on May 29, 2006, at a civil ceremony in Switzerland. After the ceremony, it was announced the Villeneuves were expecting a baby in November. Johanna gave birth to a son, Jules, on November 14, 2006.

In January 2007, Villeneuve purchased a $3 million home in Westmount in Montreal. His mother was the real estate agent responsible for the sale of the home. Jacques owns a trendy nightclub and restaurant in Montreal called Newtown, which is the English translation of his French last name ('Ville' means 'Town', and 'Neuve' means 'new'). It is located on Crescent Street, one of Montreal's hottest nightspots.

In 1984, two years after his father's death, Jacques asked his mother if he could follow his father's footsteps and go motor racing. His mother, Joann, promised she would allow him to drive a kart if he got good marks in one of his weakest subjects, maths. Villeneuve applied himself at school and soon got the marks he required for his mother to fulfill her promise. A year later, Joann fulfilled her promise to her son and allowed him to driver a 100 cc kart at a kart track in Imola. The owners of the track, Luigi and Massimo Buratti, were impressed by the Canadian and after proving himself in a 100 cc machine, he moved up to the 135 cc version before, on the same day, being allowed onto the Grand Prix circuit with a Formula Four car.

Soon, Villeneuve's uncle, Jacques Sr., enrolled him at the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School in Mont Tremblant, Quebec. Villeneuve's course lasted three days and in that time the Canadian demonstrated a great amount of concentration for a boy of his age. At the end of his course, the young Canadian received his diploma and chief instructor Gilbert Pednault declared Villeneuve as the best student he’d ever seen. During the summer of 1987, Villeneuve attended a racing school set up by former instructor Richard Spenard. In return for helping in the garage, the Canadian received guidance in terms of race craft as he attempted to hone his skills. At the age of seventeen, Villeneuve was too young to obtain a racing license in both his native Canada and Italy and so, with help from the Canadian Automotive Federation, got a license from Andorra.

In 1988, the seventeen year old entered the Alfa Cup and, against former Formula One drivers Johnny Cecotto and Mauro Baldi, finished the two legged race in tenth position. Two weeks later at Monza, Villeneuve was up against the likes of Riccardo Patrese and Nicola Larini.

A year later, Villeneuve competed in the Italian Formula Three series from 1989 through 1991, but Villeneuve failed to make in impression. In 1992, he raced in the Japanese Formula Three series, winning three races and placing second in the championship. Villeneuve soon received an invitation from Craig Pollock to compete as a one–off in the Trois Rivières Formula Atlantic race, Villeneuve finished the race third and Pollock was impressed by Villeneuve, leading him to arrange for the Canadian to race in the North American Toyota Atlantic series for the upcoming season.

During the 1993 season, Villeneuve took seven pole positions and five race victories from the 15 races. However, a few crucial driving errors cost the Canadian the series title and so finished his debut season third in the standings.

His Forsythe-Green team took Villeneuve up a level into the IndyCar championship in 1994. In his first year, Villeneuve came a close second at that year's Indianapolis 500 and won his first race at Road America, the scene in which his uncle became the first Canadian to win a CART race ten years before. Villeneuve finished the season in sixth position; 131 points behind champion Al Unser Jr. and also taking the Rookie of the Year award.

Villeneuve started the '95 campaign strongly, winning the first race on the streets of Miami. Along with the win in Miami came three other victories, the most significant of which came at Indianapolis for the Indy 500. Despite a mid–race two lap penalty, Villeneuve won the race by two seconds from Brazilian Christian Fittipaldi. His performances, as well as his family name, brought him to the attention of Frank Williams, Managerial Director of the Williams Grand Prix team. Williams signed him to his Formula One team for the 1996 and Villeneuve began testing the Williams F1 car in 1995 after the IndyCar season. Villeneuve was the last CART IndyCar World Series champion before the 1996 CART/IRL split created two rival series: The Indy Racing League (IRL) and the Champ Car World Series.

;1996 Villeneuve signed a two year contract with Williams with an option year available to him as well. Villeneuve impressed during his debut race in Australia, taking pole position and almost won the race. But due to a combination of an oil leak and team orders, Villeneuve was forced to slow down and allow team mate Damon Hill to pass and take victory at the opening round of the Championship, the Canadian however did manage to hold onto second place. It would be another decade before another driver finished on the podium on his debut which was Lewis Hamilton during the 2007 Australian Grand Prix.

Villeneuve won his first Formula One race at the fourth round at the Nürburgring despite coming under pressure from the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher. Villeneuve won a further three races, his four race victories still stand as the most in a rookie season (matched by Lewis Hamilton in 2007), and managed to take the title to the final round in Japan. The Canadian and team mate Hill were the only drivers who could win the title, but with a gap of nine points between himself and Hill prior to the final race his chances of winning the title were slim. In the end, Hill won the race while Villeneuve retired on the 37th lap after his right–rear wheel came off.

;1997 Hill was dropped by Williams for 1997, making Villeneuve the team's lead driver. German Heinz-Harald Frentzen was brought into replace Hill. Villeneuve once again challenged for the title, but instead of Hill, the Canadian found himself battling with then double World Champion Michael Schumacher. Like 1996, the title was decided at the final round in Jerez. Villeneuve came out on top and won the World Championship in only his second season, but the race was remembered for a collision between himself and title rival Schumacher. As Villeneuve passed Schumacher at the Dry–Sac corner during the 48th lap, the German turned into the Canadian's car; leaving Villeneuve with a damaged sidepod. Villeneuve recovered however and took third place and the title while Schumacher retired and was disqualified from the Championship.

;1998 Villeneuve's career went into sharp decline following his World Championship title. Remaining with Williams in 1998, he struggled with an underpowered Mecachrome engine, basically rebadged Renault engines from the previous season, and failed to win a single race, although he did finish on the podium twice in Germany and Hungary. Villeneuve finished fifth in the Drivers' Championship with 21 points, 79 points behind Champion Mika Häkkinen.

;1999 In 1999, Villeneuve joined the newly-founded British American Racing (BAR) team, co-founded and partly owned by Villeneuve's personal manager, Craig Pollock. Joining him as his team mate was Brazilian Ricardo Zonta. There was a lot of media hype about the new squad, but despite the high expectations, BAR had a poor season, retiring from the first eleven races of the season and not scoring a single Championship point. At times the car showed a promising pace, Villeneuve running in third place at Barcelona, but often, technical problems ruined his chances.

;2000 Despite the lack of a competitive car in 1999, the Canadian remained loyal to Pollock's team as did Zonta. The Supertec engines of the previous season were replaced by Honda engines and the new BAR–Honda package proved to be competitive with Villeneuve finishing in the points on seven different occasions and almost secured a podium finish at the United States Grand Prix.

;2001 Zonta left BAR in 2001 to join Jordan as a test driver. The Brazilian was replaced by experienced Frenchman Olivier Panis. Despite scoring five points less than the previous season, Villeneuve was able to finish on the podium twice in Spain and Germany, the latter would prove to be his final podium finish of his Grand Prix career.

;2002 Pollock was sacked from his post as team manager in 2002 and was replaced by Prodrive boss David Richards. Along with Pollock, Richards sacked Technical Director Malcolm Oastler and fifty members of staff at BAR. The Englishman soon began to debate over Villeneuve's £15 million annual salary. From this point on, Villeneuve felt less comfortable at the team. The BAR 004 proved to be a much less competitive car than the teams' previous two, with neither Villeneuve or Panis scoring points consistently with only seven points scored between them, Villeneuve scoring four points to Panis' three.

;2003 With one year left to run on his contract Villeneuve turned down a lucrative offer to spend a season racing in CART before returning to BAR for 2004 and 2005, a deal which Villeneuve claimed was spoken about but never actually produced for him to sign. Instead, he decided that he would see out his present deal in the hope of landing a role at another Grand Prix team the following year. The Canandian was joined by Jenson Button from Benetton in 2003 as Panis was offered a drive at the Toyota which the Frenchman took. Button would prove to become the second of Villeneuve's teammates to outscore him in the Drivers' Championship as, unlike the Canadian, the Brit was able to score consistently with the BAR 005, finishing in the points every two races.

Villeneuve was criticized by the media for being outpaced by his inexperienced teammate and before the final round in Japan, the Canandian was replaced by former British Formula Three Champion Takuma Sato.

With no contract for 2004, Villeneuve was forced to take a sabbatical, but maintained that he wanted to return to the sport. He continued training and made a special appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed driving his late father's Ferrari. In September, Villeneuve returned to Formula One, driving the final three Grands Prix of the season for French-based Renault. Jarno Trulli had fallen out of favor and team boss Flavio Briatore felt Villeneuve would be worth a gamble. Although vowing to help Renault achieve second place in the constructors championship, ahead of his former team BAR, Villeneuve failed to score a single point, unable to finish any of his races on the lead lap; Renault settled for third in the final standings. Jacques admitted that the enforced lay-off had cost him vital seat time. With the cars so much faster than in 2003, he found it difficult to adapt, and with an up and coming Fernando Alonso as team-mate his task was made all the more difficult. The young Spaniard proved much faster. Just before his 3-race Renault comeback, Villeneuve signed a two-year contract to drive for Sauber, starting in 2005.

;2005 His Sauber debut at the Australian Grand Prix saw him start the grid in fourth position, although the Canadian would finish the race nine places down the order in thirteenth and a lap down. For the opening three races he was the slowest driver on Michelin tyres and rumours began to spread that he would soon be replaced. The rumours proved unfounded and at Imola he scored his first points for the team with a fourth place. The pressure was soon back on him when he forced team-mate Felipe Massa off the track when attempting to overtake the Brazilian in Monaco, ruining both their races. Towards the end of the season, his pace improved and he scored more points at Belgium, where he finished sixth, moving ahead of Massa in the championship tables, although Massa repassed him after finishing 6th in the season finale in China. In terms of speed, the two team-mates were fairly evenly matched by the end of the year. Massa was later drafted into Ferrari to support Michael Schumacher's 2006 campaign.



After much uncertainty, in late 2005 BMW confirmed that Villeneuve would race for BMW Sauber in 2006. GP2 frontrunner Heikki Kovalainen and Indycar champion Dan Wheldon had both been linked with the seat, but BMW opted to honour Villeneuve's contract; to cut the contract would possibly have been an expensive exercise that would have cost them around $2 million, and Villeneuve was popular with the sponsors and team personnel.

;2006



Several changes were made at Sauber during the off season. First, the Swiss team were bought by BMW and renamed BMW Sauber. The German manufacturer wished to start their own works team following a six year partnership with Villeneuve's former employers Williams. In addition, Massa left Sauber for the vacant role left by Rubens Barrichello at Ferrari and Nick Heidfeld was brought into replace him. Villeneuve scored seven points during the first twelve rounds of the season. But at the German Grand Prix, Villeneuve had allegedly sustained an injury in a crash on lap 31.

After replacing Villeneuve in Hungary, test driver Robert Kubica drove to a solid seventh place, despite the chaotic wet conditions, but was later disqualified because his car was too light. Within days, BMW and Villeneuve announced that they had parted company with immediate effect. The reason for his departure was later revealed that he simply didn't want to be a part of a potential "shoot-out" with Kubica, feeling that he had proven himself already.

On January 10, 2007, at the launch of the 908 diesel-powered Le Mans prototype, Villeneuve was confirmed as one of Peugeot Sport's nine drivers for the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans. This was his first drive in a sportscar since working with Toyota in 1992. For the race, Villeneuve shared the No.7 car with Marc Gené and Nicolas Minassian. Villeneuve set the fastest time of the three drivers in qualifying to put the car into fourth place on the starting grid. The car ran second for much of the race before pitting with engine problems at 12:39pm. The car was officially retired at 1.42pm with only 100 minutes left of the race, after the team decided the problem could not be fixed.

Villeneuve has since pledged to keep competing in the event until he wins it, and has been supported by Allan McNish. If he wins the 24 Hours of Le Mans, he would become the first person to win the F1 Championship, Champ Car Championship, Indianapolis 500, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In a subsequent interview with Autosport magazine, Villeneuve's manager Craig Pollock confirmed that that Villeneuve's Formula One career was over It was announced on August 24, 2007 that Villeneuve would run the remaining seven races in the Craftsman Truck Series driving a Toyota Tundra for Bill Davis Racing and undertake a full time Sprint Cup schedule in 2008.

In Villeneuve's first Craftsman Truck race on September 22 2007, in Las Vegas, he qualified in seventh position, and finished 21st. He made his NASCAR Nextel Cup race debut in the UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama over the weekend of 5-7 October 2007. He qualified sixth, however, due to his lack of experience in this type of car, he elected to start the race from the back of the field. He finished 21st.

Though he started writing his lyrics during his lower league days in Japan, it was not until 2006 that he released his first commercial single 'Accepterais-tu', a French song with lyrics that fit well with his present personal status - asking his loved one to marry him. The launch was held at his café. On February 19, 2007, Villeneuve released his first album entitled “Private Paradise”. The launch was held at his café, where he performed two songs in front of a crowd largely composed of news reporters. When asked about his expectations on the album he released the following statement: “I hope the album makes a great success. I would never do something hoping to get criticized.” http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070219/CPARTS03/702190972/1017/CPARTS His new record had very low sales; as of March 9, 2007, only 233 copies were sold in the entire province of Quebec and about 30 outside of Quebec and Canada - excluding digital sales. http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070309/CPARTS03/70309016/5020/CPARTS03

* 1- Foolin' around * 2- You are * 3- Father * 4- Tout dire * 5- The ones * 6- Accepterais-tu? * 7- Why did you come? * 8- Vaguement * 9- Lullaby * 10- Private paradise * 11- Étrangers * 12- Women come women go' * 13- Mother earth

Jacques Villeneuve has appeared in various TV commercials for Honda when he was driving for the BAR team. In March 2006, Jacques Villeneuve appeared in television campaign for Intel's Centrino Laps campaign, in which he touts the benefits of using Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology.

Villeneuve also appeared in a Canadian commercial alongside Olympic gold medal-winning sprinter and countryman Donovan Bailey shortly after winning his 1997 F1 World Driver's title. The ad proclaimed Canada to be the "fastest nation on earth."

In 1997, following his win of the Formula One World Championship, Villeneuve appeared in a Volkswagen publicity on Québécoise television . Villeneuve was seen driving a VW before stopping and saying at the camera, "Moi, je n'ai rien contre les Allemandes!", French for "I have nothing against Germans!" - a reference to his rivalry with Michael Schumacher and for the incident at the 1997 European Grand Prix.

Villeneuve also appeared briefly in the 2001 Sylvester Stallone action movie Driven as a race car driver.

:No. = Car Number; * = Season in progress

*Races in bold designate pole position. (key)

(key)

* The official website for Jacques Villeneuve * The official music website for Jacques Villeneuve * Jacques Villeneuve's restaurant and club "Newtown" * Jacques Villeneuve Profile and Statistics * Villeneuve career statistics * Villeneuve to drive for BMW in 2006 * Jacques Villeneuve Statistics * BMW Sauber F1 website * Intel's Driven to Perform website * Villeneuve parts company with BMW Sauber * Pollock: Villeneuve done in F1 * Jacques Villeneuve on The Hour

*

* *

All Formula One race and championship results are taken from:

* Official Formula One website. Archive: Results for 1996-2006 seasons Formula1.com. Retrieved 12 July 2007