He claims he was always going to follow in his father's footsteps, though Jacques was just 11 years old when Gilles was killed in 1982. Brought up in Monaco rather than his native Canada, Villeneuve has been guided from the beginning by Craig Pollock, his This campaign was backed by Players cigarettes, which helped his graduation to Indycars in 1994. A promising season was followed by a superb one in 1995 as he took victory in the Indianapolis 500 as well as the Indycar championship. This, together with th After putting his Williams on pole position for his F1 debut, Villeneuve scored three wins and took the championship battle with teammate Damon Hill down to the wire. At Estoril he also earned the ultimate respect of the F1 world by doing the unthinkable Credentials thus established, Villeneuve headed into 1997 looking to go one better than his '96 runner-up position. After beginning the year strongly, he suffered some midseason 'wobbles' - crashing out of the lead in Canada through pure driving error, be All of which left Villeneuve virtually neck and neck with the German for a dramatic showdown at Jerez for the European Grand Prix. Though Schumacher made the early running, after both drivers had made their routine stops, Jacques began to hunt the Ferrari Villeneuve stayed with Williams in 1998 but then switched to the new British American Racing, run by his friend Pollock. The team was not a success and by the end of 2001 Villeneuve's reputation (and patience) were wearing thin. Jacques stays with the tea