In only his second year as a Formula One driver, Jacques Villeneuve has had an amazingly fast start. He won the 1997 drivers' championship Sunday and surpassed the accomplishments of his late father.
In 1995, at age 24, Villeneuve became the youngest-ever Indy Car champion and also won the Indianapolis 500 the same year. In 1996, only his first year as a Formula One driver, Villenueve won four races. This year he bettered it, winning seven of the season's 17 races and taking the coveted drivers' championship.The 26-year-old Villeneuve, who nurtures a punk-rock appearance with his close-cropped hair dyed platinum blond, long sideburns and wire-rim glasses, is a driven man and largely keeps to himself, said Gerald Donaldson, who has written biographies of Gilles Villeneuve and his son Jacques.
"Like his father, Jacques has an intense fighting spirit and tends to be a loner," Donaldson said.
Gilles was killed in 1982 when Jacques was only 11 while practicing for the Belgian Grand Prix. Discussion of his father is still a painful subject for Villeneuve.
When a reporter asked him during his moment of victory what his thoughts of his father were, Villeneuve said: "If I had any you wouldn't hear them. I keep them in private for later. This is not the type of thing I discuss with other people."
Villeneuve lived in Berthierville, Canada, where he was born on April 9, 1971. His family was constantly short of money until Gilles achieved stunning success driving for Ferrari and moved his family to a villa in Monaco in 1980.
Jacques left private school in Switzerland in 1988 to begin his own racing career, and still lives in Monaco near his mother, Joann.
Watching her son begin a career that killed her husband was traumatic for Mrs. Villeneuve, but she eventually accepted it.
"She's a fatalist and doesn't fret over it," Donaldson said.
Although regaled among Formula One fans in Europe, Canadians are only gradually coming to recognize their native son's star status.