Categories: Look backRace and classic pictures

Happy birthday to Jacques Villeneuve!

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It's 1997 Formula One World Champion Jacques Villeneuve's 45th birthday today. To mark the occasion, here's a picture of him on the podium after the Spanish Grand Prix in 2001 alongside Juan Pablo Montoya and Michael Schumacher.

Like Montoya, Villeneuve made his name in US open wheel racing and won the 1995 Indianapolis 500 before getting signed up by then-dominant Williams to race alongside Damon Hill, which meant Jacques was following in his late father Gilles' footsteps into the world of Formula One.

Villeneuve went on to take part in 163 Grand Prix races in all, amassing 13 pole positions, 11 wins and a total of 23 podium places in his F1 career that spanned over ten years, from the 1996 Australian GP to the 2006 German GP during which time he moved from Williams to BAR, Renault and finally BMW Sauber.

A crash during that final race at the Hockenheimring meant he was ruled out of the following GP at the Hungaroring on medical grounds. He was replaced by Robert Kubica, and Villeneuve severed his relationship with the team shortly afterwards.

Not that the Canadian driver was in any mood to retire: since leaving the F1 paddock he's raced in NASCAR, Le Mans, the FIA GT Championship and V8 Supercars, as well as a brief return to the IndyCar Series in the US and three outings for Venturi Grand Prix in Formula E.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.