Son of the late race legend, Gilles Villeneuve, the ex World Champion entered Formula1 with a bang in 1996 as reigning American IndyCar champ. One of the few old school 'characters' in Formula1 at the moment, if he isn't talking about how he wants to drive much, much faster he is shocking the paddock with the ever-changing colour of his hair.

The French Canadian came second in his first Grand Prix in 1996, and finished the season second in the Drivers' Championship behind Williams' team mate, Damon Hill. The following year he won the championship for himself, after a mighty tussle with Michael Schumacher, which saw the German stripped of his points because of a collision in the last race of the season at Jerez that the FIA deemed unnecessary.

Rule changes at the start of 1998 saw Williams off the pace, and the season peaked with a couple of back-to-back 3rd places in Germany and Hungary. This prompted a dissatisfied Villeneuve to move to British American Racing in 1999, a team set-up by his close friend and manager, Craig Pollock, and that was formed around the French Canadian.

1999 was not kind to Villeneuve. He endured a difficult year with the BAR team, and suffered 11 consecutive retirements. When he did finish it was never in the points and so, for the first time in his Formula1 career, he did not register on the championship board. However, the media still flocked around him for two reasons: his dramatic crash during qualifying for the 1999 Belgian Grand Prix, which he typically laughed off, and his relationship with Australian pop star and actress, Dannii Minogue. Despite rumours that they were to marry on New Year's Eve 1999 the ceremony never took place, and they currently live together in Monaco.

2000 proved to be an improvement for BAR, and Villeneuve finished seventh with seventeen points in the drivers' standings. The team had solved the reliability problems experienced the year before and so Villeneuve was often in the position to pick up points from races, if not fast enough to challenge for a place on the podium. Benetton attempted to woo him away from the Brackley-based team with a very lucrative contract for 2001, but he eventually decided to stay with the outfit.

This year Pollock has promised ahead of the launch that BAR will be in a position to challenge for wins, despite the fact that in preseason testing Villeneuve struggled to get the best from his BAR003. The team are determined to impress Honda, ahead of the Japanese manufacturer's other works team, Jordan, and Villeneuve is a big part of this plan. He is looking for a win and a realistic chance of challenging for the championship soon, and if this does not look likely he can soon be expected to move on from BAR.