Jacques Villeneuve is part of one of motorsport’s most exclusive clubs

As the son of the legendary Gilles Villeneuve, Jacques was of course immediately under the spotlight when he made his racing debut in Italian Formula 3 in 1989. It took a few years, but by the early ‘90s he was beginning to win races in Japan and the US, eventually ending up racing in the CART Indy Car World Series in 1994.

His season started with a couple of big accidents, but he quickly turned it around with a phenomenal performance at the Indy 500 to come home in second place. From that moment on he was a regular top ten finisher and claimed his first series victory at Road America. Villeneuve finished the season sixth in the standings and took home the rookie of the year award at the age of 23.

Villeneuve’s star landed the following year, when he went on to win both the Indy 500 and the CART Championship in the same year. He and Al Unser Jr. were embroiled in a season-long battle, but Villeneuve held his nerve to claim the title at just the second attempt.

It was never likely that the Canadian would remain in the US for long, however. With a name like Villeneuve, there was only one place he was going to end up. Such was his notoriety, he was quickly snapped up by Williams to join Damon Hill at the team for 1996. Frank Williams had struggled to build a solid driver pairing since the death of Ayrton Senna, and both he and Renault, Williams’ engine supplier, were interested in bringing him to the team.

Villeneuve underwent extensive testing throughout that winter, and when he arrived in Melbourne to make his Formula 1 debut he was immediately up to speed. He qualified on pole position ahead of Hill and led for much of the race, holding off the challenge of his team-mate until an oil leak forced him to slow and settle for second.

He went on to have one of the greatest rookie seasons in F1 history, finishing on the podium 11 times, taking four wins, and finishing second in the Drivers’ Championship.

His arrival at Williams coincided with the team developing a very quick car, and he duly delivered a year later, winning seven Grands Prix as he battled hard against Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher. His Championship was secured in dramatic and controversial circumstances as the Ferrari driver was adjudged to have intentionally collided with Villeneuve in a bid to wipe out his rival. Schumacher retired, and was eventually disqualified from the Championship, but Villeneuve had done enough anyway to claim the title and make a little bit more history in the process.

With that victory, Jacques Villeneuve became the fourth and (to date) final driver to have claimed both the US National Championship, in its various guises, and the F1 World Championship. That day in 1997 he joined Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi and Nigel Mansell in an incredibly exclusive club.

Andretti achieved the feat in 1978, when he followed up three USAC titles with the F1 crown. Not satisfied with that, he claimed a further CART Championship in 1984.

Fittipaldi did the reverse, leaving F1 as a two-time Champion before heading to CART to achieve much more success, including winning the title in 1989 at the age of 43.

Mansell meanwhile remains to this day the only driver ever to hold both the IndyCar and F1 Championships simultaneously. He made history when he followed up his 1992 F1 triumph by heading to the States and winning again in 1993.

That only four drivers have managed this speaks volumes of how difficult it is. It’s not only a vastly different series with different regulations, different cars and different circuits, it also demands competence on ovals, which might as well be a different discipline entirely.

There have been a fair few drivers who have come close. Juan Pablo Montoya’s career followed a very similar trajectory to Villeneuve’s. The Colombian driver won the CART Championship at the first attempt in 1999 and the Indy 500 a year later before making the switch to F1, again with Williams, in 2001. But his years in F1 coincided with the dominance of Schumacher and Ferrari, and he never managed to secure the title.

You wonder if, given the chance, the likes of Jim Clark or Graham Hill, who also found success at Indianapolis, could have added their names to this list had they ever made the decision to compete full time in the US, hypotheticals we will unfortunately never know.

Granted, the gap between F1 and IndyCar has grown wider over the years, especially in more recent times as both Championships have taken different approaches when it comes to technology and safety. While the cars themselves may not have been hugely different through the 1970s, ‘80s and even the ‘90s, the change in culture — not to mention the necessity to perform on terrifying ovals — has remained the same throughout.

Will this list ever be joined by a fifth member? There’s always the potential, what with the likes of McLaren now bridging the gap between the two series and opening a door for drivers to transfer across, but it would take someone exceptional to match the exploits of Andretti, Fittipaldi, Mansell and Villeneuve.

There are few records more exclusive in motorsport than this one, and Villeneuve will be representing that class when he rolls out onto the Goodwood Motor Circuit, at the wheel of Hairy Canary, to take part in the RAC TT Celebration at the 2025 Revival.

Tickets for the Goodwood Revival are limited! Saturday tickets have sold out, so secure your Friday and Sunday tickets to avoid missing out on the world's best historic motorsport event.

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