Jacques Villeneuve

Vocation

Canadian automobile racing driver and amateur musician. He was born in the Canadian city of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, to aspiring Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve and his wife Joann. Although Villeneuve was born in Canada, he was in fact raised in Monaco. When Villeneuve was eleven years old, his father was killed on 8 May 1982 during the qualifying session for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder following a collision with Jochen Mass. In 1984, two years after his father's death, Villeneuve asked his mother if he could follow his father's footsteps and go motor racing. Following two successful years in CART, Villeneuve moved into Formula One with the front running Williams team, alongside Damon Hill. In his debut season, Villeneuve challenged Hill for the title, winning four races and taking the fight to the final round in Japan, where the Canadian retired and Hill won the title. Villeneuve, however, did win the following year's title, this time challenging Michael Schumacher and once again taking it to the final round in Jerez. In the race, the two collided, resulting in Schumacher's retirement and subsequent disqualification from the 1997 World Championship, with Villeneuve going on to take third place in the race, and the overall title. Villeneuve's first girlfriend was Sandrine Gros d'Aillon. They dated until the late 1990s. Villeneuve was also engaged to Australian singer Dannii Minogue in the late 1990s and was once engaged to American ballerina Ellen Green. He married his Parisienne girlfriend Johanna Martinez on 29 May 2006, at a civil ceremony in Switzerland. After the ceremony, it was announced the Villeneuves were expecting a baby in November. Johanna gave birth to a son, Jules, on 14 November 2006. Their second son Jonas was born on 23 December 2007. The couple divorced in July 2009. Villeneuve currently lives in Andorra, a microstate that is located in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain. Link to Wikipedia biography