Apr 02, 2006 03:22 PM
1424 Views
(Updated Apr 02, 2006 04:04 PM)
Jacques Villeneuve was born in Quebec in Canada in the early 1970s. His father, Gilles Villeneuve, died in 1982 during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix. Gilles Villeneuve was an amazingly talented fella and won six races in F1 but could never capture the world title due to his premature death. Following in his father's footsteps, Jacques became a Formula One driver for Williams in 1996.
HIS DEBUT YEAR
In 1995, Villeneuve impressed Frank Williams and he was signed as second driver at Williams. His team-mate was Damon Hill. To everyone's surprise, the debutant grabbed pole in his very first qualifying session. Finishing on the podium on his debut was the icing on an already very sweet cake.
He scored his maiden F1 victory at the Nurburgring in Germany by fending off reigning champion Michael Schumacher. He finished on the podium 11 times that season and scored 78 points to become the most celebrated rookie in the sport- of all time. His awesome record is the best achieved by a rookie till date. That year, Hill won the driver's title and Williams won the constructor's championship to make it a double for Williams.
HIS CHAMPIONSHIP WINNING YEAR
In 1997, Damon Hill departed to lowly Arrows and Villeneuve became number one driver at Williams. He outpaced new team-mate, Heinz Herald Frentzen, quite easily and went on win the driver's title in his very second year in the sport. His popularitry reached its lmit at that time and his fan-base was growing all the time.
Villeneuve won seven races and grabbed ten pole positions en route to the championship and also grabbed numerous podium finishes. He won the championship at the last round at Jerez in Spain by finishing in third position there. Michael Schumacher tried all the dirty tricks in the book at that race since the championship was on the line but in vain. He had to retire from the race and was disqualifed from that year's results. Thus, the German suffered ultimate humiliation while his Canadian counterpart ran home with the prize.
HIS CAREER AFTER 1997
In 1998, Williams were using underpowered Mechachrome engines after Renault left them. Villeneuve struggled and only managed to grab 21 points that season to finish in a lowly fifth position in the driver's standings.
In 1999, Villeneuve left Williams to join the newly-formed BAR, where his good frien Craig Pollock (manager) was. But he soon found out that helping to build a team from scratch required more effort than he had anticipated. Forget winning a race or finishing on the podium, Villeneuve never even managed to finidh in the points all season long. His stock went suddenly downwards in a car which was clearly not upto the mark. 2000, 2001 and 2002 rolled by without anything significant happening. In 2003, Villeneuve was outpaced by his young teram-mate, Jenson Button. The British youngster put the former champion in his place and forced BAR to sack him at the end of 2003. In 2004, Villeneuve was absent from the grid and came back only to drive three races for the Renault team. He was outpaced by Alonso at this time and he failed to score a single point in the three races.
HIS SEASON AT SAUBER
Peter Sauber, the boss of the small Swiss team Sauber, offered Villeneuve a drive at his team for 2005. Villeneuve grabbed it gleefully, hoping to make a brilliant comeback to F1 and prove that he still had the fire in him. But he was outpaced by felipe Massa, the young Brazillian who was his team-mate.
At times, as at Imola, his talent shone through but it was evident that Villeneuve was not at his best. To me, it always seemed as though he was always ready with an excuse. He always claimed that his best was yet to come and he was getting better and better. Bah. Nothing but an escapist's statements.
MY ANALYSIS
Despite his 2005 failure, Villeneuve is undoubtedly quick. Although he does not have the skill of his father, he is quick and he did win the world championship didn't he? His xperience will surely make him a better driver and he will hopefully be better in 2006 at BMW. There is no problem with his attitude: F1 needs colourful and rebellious characters to liven up the sport a bit. His pink hair or no hair should not be a topic of discussion. Let's see what happens as 2006 unfolds!
THANKS FOR READING> PLEASE POST COMMENTS
