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Date of birth:_____9th April 1971
Current age:______29
Place of birth:____St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada
Resident:________Monte Carlo, Monaco
Height:_____1,69 m
Weight:_____71 kg
Start of racing career______: 1988 in the Alfa Italian Tourism Championship
First racing car_____________: Formula Ford 1600
First success______________: 1992 at Nishi Sendai, Japan, in the All Japan F3 Championship
Most memorable experience: Winning the Formula One Championship and the Indy 500 win
Career:
1986 Jim Russel Racing Drivers School, CDN
1987 Spenard-David Racing School in a Ford 2000, CDN
1988 3 races in the Alfa Italian Touring Car Championship
1989 Italian F3 Championship in a Reynard
1990 Italian F3 Championship in a Reynard Alfa Romeo 903, 14th
1991 Italian F3 Championship in a Ralt-Alfa Romeo RT35, 6th with 20 pts
1992 Japanese F3, Team Tom's Toyota, 3 wins, 2nd; F3 race in Monaco in a Dallara-Alfa Romeo 392, 9th;
_ _ _GP Player's Ltee de Trois-Rivieres race, 3rd
1993 Atlantic Series with Forsythe-Green Racing, 3rd, 7 poles, 5 wins, "Rookie of the Year"
1994 IndyCar Series with Forsythe Green, 6th, 94 points, first win at Elkhart Lake, 2nd at Indy 500,
_ _ _"Rookie of the Year" in both Indy 500 and Championship
1995 IndyCar Champion with Team Green (youngest ever winner + 1st Canadian), 4 wins, 6 poles, 6 track records
1996 F1 Williams-Renault, 78 points, 2nd
1997 F1 Williams-Renault, 81 points, World Champion
1998 F1 Winfield Williams Mecachrome, 21 points, 5th
1999 F1 BAR-Supertec, 0 points, 21st
2000 F1 BAR-Honda
His debut up to F3 in 1992
1986
- At 15, with his mother Joan permission and the help and guidance of his uncle Jacques Sr (Gilles brother), JV register for an intensive racing school at Jim Russell. For many years Jim Russell classes located at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, holds the reputation to be one of the best in North America and has trained some of the best including JV’s father Gilles Villeneuve and Jacques Villeneuve , his uncle and mentor at the time. It is indeed at the best possible racing school that JV does his first classes in Formula Ford 1600cc specially modified to accommodate Jacques small stature, specially at the time. During these first laps he demonstrates immense potential for the profession.
1987
- Register at Richard Spenard Formula 2000 racing school at Shannonville, Ontario, Canada. JV participates in three races in the school championship.
1988
- Participation in three races of the Alfa Italian Touring car Championship in Italy.
1989 to 1991
: Participation in Formula 3 Championship in Italy. Jacques makes the podium 4 times with two second place and two third place finishes.
1992
- Participation in Formula 3 in Japan. He finishes second in the Japanese Championship with 3 victories, a second place finish and 5 third places. It is during this period that Jacques takes a very important decision for his professional career by asking Craig Pollock, his ex-school teacher at Beau-Soleil in Switzerland to become his personal manager. Craig’s influence is determinant on JV success.
Formula Atlantic : 1992 - 1993
1992
- Participation in his first major event in North America at Le Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres (Quebec) Canada. The main sponsor of the event, Player’s Canada Limited, have invited JV to race an excellent prepared Atlantic Formula for his North American debut. It is the first time that the two Jacques , uncle and nephew, are in the same race. Uncle Jacques, a local hero here in Three-Rivers, has always offered his supporters thrills by racing to the limit, even if he did not always have the right equipment to perform to his best abilities. JV, Gilles son, becomes the new challenger of this historical event and is very impressive at his first outing by taking third place on the podium. Jacques Sr is bad lucky and fails to finish the race he led for a while due to mechanical failure. A race to remember for all Canadian fans of Villeneuve !
1993
- JV is a regular participant in his first Atlantic Formula Championship with Team Forsythe-Green. The team has an excellent car and reputation helping Jacques acquiring very important experience in the hi-tech World that has become Formula racing. Barry Green, co-owner of the team and Tony Cicale the engineer responsible for the race car preparation, are two people that have a lot of respect for JV potential. It is with both of them that JV will develop his immense talent and become a true professional racer. JV earns the "Rookie of the Year" title with 5 victories including a victory in Montreal at "Le Circuit Gilles Villeneuve" after a memorable dual with David Empringham from Ontario. JV also collected 3 second places, one third place podium and 7 poles during that season.
IndyCar : 1994 - 1995
1994
- Rookie of the year Still with team Forsythe-Green, JV makes his debut in the major leagues, this time it will be his rookie year in the PPG IndyCar series.
At his very first outing on the street course of Surfers Paradise in Australia, JV is stunning and qualifies his Reynard-Ford in 8th position. During the race, the ex-formula one racer Stefan Johansson does not hesitate and pushes Jacques in the cement wall. This is Jacques first encounter with the reality of Indy racing and the walls. (special note: The extremely fast Nigel Mansell, ex-Formula One 1992 and Indy 1993 champion with his typical British humor said one day: " There is only two types of racers, those who have hit a wall and those who will ! "
At his second race on the short tri-oval at Phoenix, Arizona, JV gets the second best time in qualification. During the race, he falls victim of a major crash involving Hiro Matsushita, Teo Fabi and Paul Tracy his Canadian fellow racer. It is a miracle that no one was hurt in this major race incident. There was some pretension that the accident was caused by Jacques inexperience, others simply agreed that it was simply one of those unpredictable situation of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
At Indianapolis, JV gets the title of rookie of the year, after establishing the fourth best time in qualifying the fastest of the all Reynard-Ford. He finishes second, only meters away from the winner Al Unser Jr.
At only his 14th race in IndyCar, Jacques celebrates his first victory following his excellent performance at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The victory was hardly earned after realizing a super race maneuver to overtake both Penske driven by Paul Tracy and Al Unser Jr. It is also on that track in 1985, that Jacques Villeneuve Sr (Gilles brother) won his first IndyCar victory. At the time, Jacques Villeneuve Sr became the first Canadian racer to ever win an IndyCar event. It is quite curious that both Jacques Villeneuve won their first victory on that same circuit within a 10 years period.
At the end of the 1994 season, Jacques is declared Rookie of the year finishing sixth in the points standing, with one victory, a second place and a third place podium out of the 16 events series.
1995
- Champion of the prestigious PPG IndyCar World Series !Jacques Villeneuve started his second season of the PPG IndyCar Championship racing for the new Barry Green team, referred as TEAM GREEN. The new team is impressing and wins the first race of the season on the street circuit of Miami.
Formula 1 : 1995...
Hundreds of kilometers of testing…
The first three days of August 1995, prior to completing the 1995 IndyCar season in route, for the 14th race at mid-Ohio towards his Championship, Jacques was invited to test the famous FW17 at Silverstone, England by Team Rothmans Williams-Renault under the close scrutiny of Frank Williams himself, the owner of the prestigious Williams team, who wanted to evaluate young Jacques potential to race for RWR. Jacques seemed satisfied with the trials and apparently Mr. Williams and his team members were very impressed.
On August the 15th , Jacques and his manager, Craig Pollock, made the official announcement of the signing of a two years contract for Jacques to race with the RWR team in 1996.
In order to prepare himself and his new team for his entry in F-1, Jacques did multiple training session with the new racing car and team from September 1995 until his first race of the season on March 10th in Australia. Jacques drove a few thousands kilometers of training on other majors race track beside what is considered the "home track" at Silverstone. His test results are outline below:
Monza (September 95) : second time behind Coulthard
Imola (October 95) : second behind Damon Hill
Estoril (November 95) : Best time ahead of Schumacher
Estoril ( December 95) : Best time ahead of Hill
1996 - Formula One Runner Up...
Wins: 4 (Europe, Britain, Hungary, Portugal)
Pole positions: 3 (Australia, Belgium, Japan)
Points: 78
Standing: 2nd
1997 - Formula One World Champion…
Wins: 7 (Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Britain, Hungary, Austria, Luxembourg)
Pole positions: 10 (Australia, Brazil, Argentina, San Marino, Spain, Britain, Belgium, Austria, Japan, Europe) Points: 81
Standing: 1st
1998 - Formula One : Driver for The Williams Team…
Win : 0
Pole position: 0
Best results : 3rd place (Germany and Hungary)
Points: 21
Standing: 5th
1999 - Formula One : Driver for British American Racing…
Win : 0
Pole position: 0
Points: 0
Standing: 21st (his worst season in career)
2000 - Formula One - Driver for BAR- Honda...