Jacques Villeneuve is the son of the late, great Gilles Villeneuve. Jacques was only eleven years old when his father died but he was determined to carry on in the families’ tradition of motor racing. His, uncle; who he was named after; Jacques Villeneuve, was also a successful racing driver in America and Canada.     

He stated his racing career in Karting and progressed into the Italian Formula 3 series in 1989 and continued in the series until 1991. In 1992 he was driving in the Japanese Formula 3 series, he won three races and finished second in the championship. In 1993, Jacques moved to North American to compete in Formula Atlantic, he won five races and finished third in the championship. In the following year, he moved into Champcar, he was Rookie of the year, after having a string of strong results. In 1995, Jacques Villeneuve became the youngest ever Indy 500 winner and CART Champion, at 24 years old.

In 1996 Villeneuve switched to Formula One with Williams. In his F1 debut he became the second drive in F1 history, to achieve both pole position and a podium finish in their maiden Grand Prix.

At the European Grand Prix he won his first Formula One Grand Prix. Jacques Villeneuve then won the British Grand Prix, the Hungarian Grand Prix and the Portuguese Grand Prix. In his glittering debut season he finished second to teammate; Damon Hill in the Drivers Championship with a massive 78 points.

In 1997 Villeneuve had achieved the ultimate goal in any racing driver career; he won the Formula One Driver World Championship. Hill had moved to Arrows in 1997, allowing Villeneuve to be the team leader at Williams. Villeneuve won seven Grand Prixs that season and had started from pole ten times.

He clinched the championship at the last race of the season, the European Grand Prix. Villeneuve had been fighting with Michael Schumacher all season for the championship. Schumacher was ahead of Villeneuve in the championship by one point. Schumacher in an attempt to win the championship drove his Ferrari into, Williams of Villeneuve, in a bid to take both cars out the race and leave Schumacher with the Championship but, it didn’t work. Schumacher retired from the race and Villeneuve finished third, Villeneuve won the Championship and Michael Schumacher was disqualified from the championship.

In 1998, Williams lost their engine supplier; Renault. This meant that Williams had to use Mercachrome engines. The car was uncompetitive and Villeneuve finished the season in fifth place in the championship with a dismal 21 points.

In 1999 he moved to the newest team on the grid; BAR. A team partially owned by his manager; Craig Pollack. Expectations were high for BAR and Villeneuve in their first year; they had an appalling season, the team failed to score a single point.

In 2000, with new engine supplier; Honda. Villeneuve was able to score 17 points and finish seventh in the championship. In 2001, Villeneuve managed to finishes third on the podium twice that season.

2002 and 2003 were grim seasons for the former World Champion. 2003 was especially bleak for Villeneuve, he had got a new teammate; Jenson Button who outshone the Canadian. BAR announced that Tukuma Sato was to replace Villeneuve in 2004; Villeneuve hit the roof and quit ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.

In 2004 he took a year out from Formula One. There was a lot of media speculation as to what the Canadians plans were for 2005. In mid September, he signed two contracts in one day. Firstly he signed to Renault to replace Jarno Trulli for the last three Grand Prix of the season and secondly he signed to Sauber to drive for them in 2005.

Those few Grand Prixs that Jacques Villeneuve drove for Renault proved the doubts that Jacques feared; he was not fit enough and that he was unused to the 2004 cars.

Over the winter he work hard on his fitness and getting acquainted with his new car but it seams is if it hasn’t paid off. He has been out shone by teammate; Felipe Massa and he keeps getting in trouble with team boss; Peter Sauber.

In 2006, BMW are going to take over Sauber and Jacques future looks in doubt, he insists that he has a contract with BMW Racing.