The zenith of Villeneuve's F1 career

©WRi2

Jacques Villeneuve became Formula One World Champion on this day in 1997, beating Michael Schumacher to the title. With the season finale held at Jerez, Villeneuve started the weekend one point behind Schumacher and needed to beat the Ferrari driver in order to take the championship. Villeneuve attempted to pass Schumacher for the lead on lap 48, the German turned in and hit the Williams but it was the Ferrari which was terminally damaged and Villeneuve came home third to win the title in only his second season in F1.

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.