Jacques Villeneuve
Jacques Villeneuve
Jacques Joseph Charles Villeneuve, OQ, is a Canadian auto racing driver and amateur musician. He is the son of Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve, and is the namesake of his uncle, who was also a racer. Villeneuve won the 1995 CART Championship, the 1995 Indianapolis 500 and the 1997 Formula One World Championship, making him only the third driver after Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi to achieve such a feat. To date, no other Canadian has won the Indianapolis 500...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth9 April 1971
CountryCanada
I am having fun with my driving again and enjoying going to the limit.
I am stupidly passionate about music; it has become a bit of drug. I buy tons of CDs and spend days listening to each and every one, putting notes on every song to know which tracks are good so that when I do my little MP3 collection, I know which songs to include.
I would rather have racing without computers. The human side is forgotten, and instead of talking over what's happening and just trusting the feel of the driver, the data becomes almost more important.
My goal is not to be a race-car driver. The reason I'm racing is because I enjoy being in the car and being on the edge.
I'm always taken aback by the affection that this area shows toward my father. I feel the affection too.
I'm a racer at heart more than anything else, and that will always be my priority: competing. But ultimately, if you can't drive, you can still have the competitive spirit outside of a car.
I'm a purist, and I love the sport. I loved the '60s and '70s, when the fans even enjoyed the races where only four cars finished, and they were two laps apart.
I love a lot of high speed turns, turns where you have to push yourself, force yourself to go fast. Then there's something telling your foot to lift off, because it's so fast, and it's impressive when you get that feeling and just drive on.
I hate it when politics play too large part in the sport.
Winning is still the reason that I drive in formula one. And the title, as well. I'm not here just to be part of it. I haven't forgotten how to win.
F1 is giving penalties for people making mistakes instead of for people driving dirty. And that is wrong. Mistakes happen. You run into each other: that's life, that's racing, and too bad.
Everybody has fallen asleep on the fact that F1 is dangerous. They all think it's a video game, and it's not. It is very, very dangerous, and it's tough.
It's sad that you don't see drivers being real people.
I want to race in formula one for a lot longer.