Jacques Villeneuve was born

On 9 April 1971, Jacques Villeneuve was born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. He would later become Canada’s only Formula 1 world champion and one of the few drivers whose career genuinely linked the sharp end of F1 with the biggest prizes in American single-seater racing.

Villeneuve arrived in Formula 1 with more than promise. In 1995 he won both the Indianapolis 500 and the CART title in the United States, then moved straight into a Williams seat for 1996. It was not a long apprenticeship. He was immediately quick, and by 1997 he had taken the world championship for Williams after a ferocious title fight with Michael Schumacher.

That is what makes his birth worth marking in F1 history. Villeneuve did not simply become a world champion. He completed one of the fastest and most unusual climbs of the era, going from Indy 500 winner and CART champion to Formula 1 champion in the space of two seasons. Plenty of drivers have crossed the Atlantic. Very few have looked quite so at home on both sides of it.

i

Villeneuve was not the only driver to win an F1 world title, the Indy 500 and a CART championship. Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi did it too, which makes Villeneuve part of a three-man group. That is a rare company, and it explains why 9 April matters in more than one paddock.