Villeneuve moved to Williams in Formula One for the 1996 season, claiming four Grand Prix victories, and becoming the first rookie runner-up in the World Drivers' Championship (WDC) after a season-long duel with teammate Damon Hill.

[1] Aged seven in 1978, Villeneuve and his family relocated from Berthierville, Quebec,[5][8] to the small principality of Monaco on the French Riviera in France's south-east coast close to the border with Italy to be nearer to Ferrari's headquarters.

[4][5] On the advice of driver Patrick Tambay,[9] Villeneuve was sent to the French-speaking Swiss private boarding Collège Alpin International Beau Soleil by his mother, which he attended from the ages of 12 (1983) to 17 (1988).

[13][15] In July 1986, his uncle enrolled him in the Jim Russell Racing Driver School in Mont Tremblant,[a] where he passed a three-day course driving a Formula Ford 1600 car from Van Diemen.

[17] Villeneuve went on to sign a three-year contract to drive a Reynard-Alfa Romeo car for Prema in the Italian Formula Three Championship, a deal that was aided by the squad obtaining sponsorship from the Camel cigarette company.

[22] Villeneuve accepted an offer to relocate to Japan and drive a Toyota 032F car for the TOM'S squad in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship in 1992 following advice from Tambay.

10 Ralt RT40-Toyota car, Villeneuve won five races and finished in the top three four times for third overall and 185 points after a season-long duel with David Empringham and teammate Claude Bourbonnais.

[f][27][28] He debuted at the season-opening Australian FAI Indycar Grand Prix at Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, starting eighth and finishing 17th after colliding with Stefan Johansson.

In the season's next round, the Valvoline 200 at Phoenix International Raceway, he was involved in a five-car accident which saw him sustain a side collision with Hiro Matsushita before being struck by Dominic Dobson.

Villeneuve went on to win both the Texaco/Havoline 200 at Road America and the Grand Prix of Cleveland, also scoring points in all but one of the remaining rounds to clinch the title at the final race in Laguna Seca.

[30] Technical director Patrick Head and team principal Frank Williams gave Villeneuve a test in a FW17 car at Britain's Silverstone Circuit in August 1995.

Villeneuve's debut at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix saw him become the third driver ever to claim pole position on his first start,[34] and despite an oil leak, he finished second.

During practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, he lost control of his car in Eau Rouge corner and crashed backwards into the barrier at approximately 170 mph (270 km/h).

[65] He became uncomfortable when new BAR team principal David Richards publicly mentioned that money spent on Villeneuve's high salary could be better used for research and development.

[70] Before his tenure at Sauber began, Villeneuve was employed by Briatore to help Renault claim second from BAR in the World Constructors' Championship by scoring the maximum number of points in the 2004 season's final three races following the dismissal of Jarno Trulli for performing poorly.

[77] Before that, he made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut with Peugeot in the 2007 edition informing team manager Serge Saulnier that he wanted to complete the Triple Crown of Motorsport.

That February, BDR released Villeneuve, who failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 of the renamed Sprint Cup Series after causing a multi-car accident in the Gatorade Duels.

[86] Two months later, he raced the final two rounds of the inaugural season of the Middle East and Southeast Asian-based stock car Speedcar Series at the Bahrain International Circuit and the Dubai Autodrome.

[87][88] Villeneuve then won the 2008 1000 km of Spa (part of the Le Mans Series) for Peugeot with Gené and Minassian in his first race victory in 11 years.

27 Mercedes TRV6 at the Interlagos Circuit and Autódromo Oscar y Juan Gálvez rounds of Top Race V6 Argentina,[96] achieving a best finish of 13th in Buenos Aires.

55 Ford FG Falcon for the Gold Coast 600 double header in October 2010 and sought advice from driver Marcos Ambrose on touring car racing.

[o][80] Midway through the season, Villeneuve was hired by car owner James Finch to drive the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway in the Sprint Cup Series for Phoenix Racing in its No.

[130][131] Villeneuve accepted an invitation to enter 2015 Stock Car Brasil's season-opening Autódromo Internacional Ayrton Senna round alongside Zonta in Shell Racing's No.

[138] He drove a Subaru Rally Team USA-entered WRX STi Supercar at the World RX of Canada (part of the Americas Rallycross Championship).

[153][154] For 2023, Villeneuve entered the first three rounds of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship alongside Tom Dillmann and Esteban Guerrieri in the Floyd Vanwall Racing Team's No.

[168] Villeneuve was employed by Disney France in late 2010, spending two days recording the French voice of David Hobbscap for the 2011 Pixar animated film Cars 2.

[174] Villeneuve was engaged firstly to a Montreal college student named Sandrine Gros D'Aillon, then to Australian pop singer Dannii Minogue and later American ballerina Ellen Green.

[178] Journalist Gerald Donaldson describes Villeneuve as "engagingly eccentric, opinionated and outspoken" and one who "defied convention and challenged authority, saying exactly what he thought in an era when drivers were expected to express only sweet-talking platitudes.

[196] He provided his engineers with suggestions that Maurice Hamilton wrote were "so far from the norm to the point of diametrically opposed to standard practice, sometimes giving the impression of being pursued just for the hell of it.

[200] He looked at a photograph of his mother wearing a pink, yellow, green and blue V-shaped striped polo shirt at a motor race her husband was competing at, and he used her pencils to produce the design.