Jacques Villeneuve

Jacques Villeneuve (born 9 April 1971) is a Canadian professional racing driver and amateur musician who won the 1997 Formula One World Championship with Williams.

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, Villeneuve 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.

In May 1982, his father died in an accident with Jochen Mass during qualifying for the at Circuit Zolder.

Jacques became less interested in motor racing after that, fearing the sport's dangers.

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 skiing, BASE jumping, ice hockey, motocross and water skiing.

Villeneuve left the school by mutual consent between his mother and the school owners.

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 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, Villeneuve 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 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 began racing at age 18 in the Italian Formula Three Championship, which he raced in between 1989 and 1991.

He moved to the higher-tier Toyota Atlantic Championship, participating in one race during the 1992 season and finishing third overall in the 1993 championship.

He began competing in Championship Auto Racing Teams with the Forsythe/Green Racing team in the 1994 season, finishing sixth in the Drivers' Championship with one victory and earning Rookie of the Year and Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honours.

In the following year with the renamed Team Green, Villeneuve won four races (including the Indianapolis 500) and the Drivers' Championship.

In addition to Formula One, 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 was voted the winner of both the Lou Marsh Trophy and the Lionel Conacher Award in each of 1995 and 1997.

Villeneuve is an inductee of the Canadian Motor Sports Hall of Fame, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, and the FIA Hall of Fame.

Villeneuve moved to Williams in Formula One for the 1996 season, claiming four Grand Prix victories, and becoming the first rookie runner-up in the World Drivers' Championship (WDC) after a season-long duel with teammate Damon Hill.

His main title challenge for the following season came from Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, and Villeneuve beat the latter following a controversial collision at the season-ending, becoming the first Canadian World Drivers' Champion, achieving seven Grand Prix victories.

He finished fifth in the 1998 season achieving two podiums and helped Williams finish third in the World Constructors' Championship behind Ferrari and McLaren.

Villeneuve was appointed Officer of the National Order of Quebec in 1998.

After an unsuccessful with British American Racing (BAR), Villeneuve finished seventh in the WDC in both and with BAR, achieving two podiums in 2001, outscoring his teammates Ricardo Zonta and Olivier Panis.

Villeneuve the raced in Formula One from to, driving for BAR, Renault, Sauber, and BMW Sauber, but he did not achieve any further success.

Villeneuve left Formula One mid-way through the 2006 season and began competing in various forms of motor racing such as sports car racing, NASCAR, and touring car racing.

Though not as successful in these forms of racing, he won the 2008 1000 km of Spa driving for Peugeot.