Jacques’ father, Gilles, was a Formula 1 Driver himself who was killed in qualifying at the Belgian GP. At the time, Jacques himself was only 11. He started his career with Italian Formula 3 racing before he moved to join the CART Indycar series in North America. He finished his stint there winning the Indianapolis 500 and the CART World Championship before moving to Formula 1 in 1996 with the Williams team. Villeneuve announced his arrival on the Formula 1 stage in dramatic fashion. He became only the second driver ever to start their debut race from the pole position and finish on the podium. In fact, but for an oil leak and team instructions to let Damon Hill win snatched a debut win away from him. But a maiden victory was not too far away and he went on to win four races, achieve 11 podium finishes and score 78 points in his debut year. All these are records that stand to the day. He was in fact in the running to win the title until a wheel fell off in the last race at Suzuka. But his performance and Damon Hill winning the title ensured that Williams won the Constructor’s championship by over 100 points! What he could not do in his debut year was possible in just the second year. With Damon Hill moving to join Arrows, Villeneuve became the senior driver and Heinz-Harald Frentzen the junior. Villeneuve won 7 races, had 8 podium finishes and a World Champioinship title in just his second season. This title also meant that he became one of only three drivers ever to win the CART World Championship, the Indy 500 and the Formula 1 World Championship joining a very elite group that included Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi. It wasn’t an easy title to win, though. He was engaged in a battle to the finish with Michael Schumacher and the championship went down to the wire… the last race at Jerez. And as if that wasn’t enough, Villeneuve and Schumacher were involved in a little ‘accident’ that saw Schumacher cut in front of Villeneuve and end up on the gravel. Schumacher later admitted to causing the accident intentionally. He was subsequently stripped of his second spot for the year. After the high of 1997 came the desperate low of 1998. Renault was no longer the engine supplier to Williams and the new Mecachrome engine did not have enough power for a World Championship defence. Villeneuve did finish fifth, but two podium finishes and one pole position were the only highlights of the year. From 1999 to 2003, Villeneuve was with the British American Racing (BAR) team. Founded in 1999, there was considerable hype surrounding the team and what they may achieve. But a poor engine and reliability issues meant that none of the hype was substantiated. Many believed Villeneuve would switch back to Williams within a year, but he stuck on. While the car did improve marginally for the 2000 season, arguably his best with the team, it wasn’t good enough. Team-mate Ricardo Zonta was also rather inexperienced and that could not have helped the car’s development either. Things did not get any better in 2001 and Zonta was replaced by Olivier Panis who could almost match Villeneuve for speed. But it was Villeneuve who had the better of the results including two podium finishes. But his overall standing on the Championship table was only slipping and he finished 2001 in 7th place. By 2002, things had gotten considerably worse and Villeneuve could manage only two finishes that earned any points. The car’s reliability and speed both remained questionable and Villeneuve often struggled to finish races. He ended 2002 in 12th place with just 4 points. If his fans thought that the worst was past them, 2003 showed that nothing can be taken for granted: not even failure! Villeneuve finished only seven races that season, scoring 6 points and fell further to 16th on the Championship table. With three bad years in a row, getting a seat for 2004 was not going to be easy and it wasn’t! Without a contract in hand, Villeneuve was forced to take a break in 2004. Although he maintained that he wanted to race, contracts were not easy to come by. That is, until Renault threw him a line. When Jarno Trulli fell out of favour at Renault, Villeneuve got his final lease of life in Formula 1 and he raced for the last three races of the season. Although he finished all three races, he could not score any points for Renault and was once again shopping for a contract. For 2005, the contract came from Sauber. Teamed with Felipe Massa, Villeneuve struggled to come to terms with faster cars and an unfit physique. He later admitted to both and worked hard at returning into shape. But errors of judgement like forcing team-mate Massa off the track are hardly forgivable and although he did manage 9 points in the season, it was hardly noticeable. He finished in 14th and his future in F1 was looking bleak indeed. He moved to BMW for 2006 and things were going okay for him until he injured himself in Hungary. Till then, he had managed 7 points in 8 finishes. But everyone knew this was not going to be a good year. And when BMW decided to test out driver Robert Kubica for a few races, Villeneuve announced that he and BMW had parted ways. He said he did not want to be in a “shoot-out” with Kubica for a seat. This right after he had professed his love for the team! “I love the team. We work well together and the team is going in the right direction as it is progressing well. It is not a dying team. It is the other way round as it is one on the way up,” he had said in a magazine interview. There is talk of Villeneuve returning to the North American racing (NEXTEL Cup) but before that, he has announced that he will be driving for Peugeot in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. He has the chance of becoming the first driver to win this in addition to his other titles. Villeneuve will perhaps rue the fact that he jumped at the chance of racing with BAR and stayed with them for so long. Had he switched a team sooner, who knows what heights he may have achieved. Nonetheless, his place in racing history is assured thanks to his unique triple… something he could potentially add to in 2007.