page_title: Jacques Villeneuve
section_title: British American Racing
hierarchical_section_title: Jacques Villeneuve / Racing career / Formula One / British American Racing
caption_attribution_description: Jacques Villeneuve driving for British American Racing at the 1999 Canadian Grand Prix.
context_page_description: Jacques Joseph Charles Villeneuve OQ is a Canadian professional auto racing driver and amateur musician. Villeneuve currently competes in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, driving the #5 car for FEED Vict Racing in the EuroNASCAR PRO class. 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. As of 2019, no other Canadian has won the Indianapolis 500 or the Formula One Drivers' title.
  Following two successful years in CART, Villeneuve moved into Formula One with the front-running Williams team, alongside Damon Hill. In his debut season, Villeneuve challenged teammate Hill for the title, winning four races and taking the fight to the final round in Japan, where Villeneuve retired and Hill won the race and the title.
context_section_description: 1999
  In 1999, Villeneuve joined the newly founded British American Racing (BAR) team, co-founded and partly owned by Villeneuve's personal manager, Craig Pollock, and by Adrian Reynard. Joining him as his teammate was Brazilian Ricardo Zonta. There was a lot of media hype about the new squad, but despite the high expectations, BAR had a poor season, retiring from the first eleven races of the season and not scoring a single Championship point. At times the car showed a promising pace, with Villeneuve running in third place at Barcelona, but often technical problems ruined his chances. Villeneuve suffered a high speed crash during practice at the Belgian Grand Prix at the Eau Rouge corner, from which he emerged unharmed.
  2000
  Despite the lack of a competitive car in 1999, Villeneuve remained loyal to Pollock's team, as did Zonta. The Supertec engines of the previous season were replaced by Honda engines, and the new BAR-Honda package proved to be more competitive, with Villeneuve finishing in the points on seven occasions and almost securing a podium finish at the United States Grand Prix.
  2001
  Zonta left BAR in 2001 to join Jordan as a test driver. Zonta was replaced by experienced Frenchman Olivier Panis. Villeneuve was involved in a crash at the Australian Grand Prix, the first race of the season, when he hit the back of Ralf Schumacher's Williams. A track marshal was killed when a stray tyre hit him in the chest. Villeneuve scored five points less than the previous season, but finished on the podium twice in Spain and Germany. The latter was the final podium finish of his Grand Prix career.
  2002
  Pollock was removed from his post as team manager in 2002 and was replaced by Prodrive boss David Richards. Along with Pollock, Richards removed Technical Director Malcolm Oastler and fifty members of staff at BAR. Richards soon began to debate over Villeneuve's £15 million annual salary. From this point on, Villeneuve felt less comfortable at the team. The BAR 004 proved to be a much less competitive car than the teams' previous two, with neither Villeneuve or Panis scoring points consistently with only seven points scored between them, Villeneuve scoring four points to Panis's three.
  2003
  With one year left to run on his contract Villeneuve turned down a lucrative offer to spend a season racing in CART before returning to BAR for 2004 and 2005, a deal which Villeneuve claimed was spoken about but never actually produced for him to sign. Instead, he decided that he would see out his present deal in the hope of landing a role at another Grand Prix team the following year. Villeneuve was joined by Jenson Button from Renault in 2003 as Panis was offered a position at Toyota. Button would prove to become the second of Villeneuve's teammates to outscore him in the Drivers' Championship as, unlike Villeneuve, Button was able to score consistently with the BAR 005, finishing in the points every two races on average.
  Villeneuve was criticized by the media for being outpaced by his inexperienced teammate and before the final round in Japan; he was replaced by former British Formula 3 Champion Takuma Sato.
caption: Villeneuve driving for BAR in the team's first season, at the 1999 Canadian Grand Prix.
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