When motorsport icons die young, they become frozen in the public imagination as eternal symbols of heroic nobility and sacrifice.
For racing enthusiasts, Gilles Villeneuve’s spectacular and aggressive driving style came to define the ideal of what a motorsport competitor should be. His death at 32 during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder cemented his myth as a tragically fallen hero. The circumstances surrounding the accident and the behind-the-scenes tensions with teammate Didier Pironi remain controversial to this day.
The reality of the man behind the legend is far more nuanced, which explains why Jacques was so resistant to comparisons when he entered Formula 1 in 1996.
A new biopic, Villeneuve: Rise of a Legend, will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 19, with a Quebec theatrical release in November. The global release is planned for next year, marking 50 years since Gilles made his F1 debut in a McLaren at the 1977 British Grand Prix.
The film will focus on the years before Gilles became a Ferrari icon, a journey filled with personal and professional setbacks. Jacques’ sister Melanie serves as executive producer.
Gilles Villeneuve with his wife, Joanna, and children Melanie and Jacques, at the 1978 Italian Grand Prix
Photo by: Getty Images
“Talking about my father was never an issue,” Jacques told Motorsport.com. “The problem was that those people [journalists] weren’t interested in my answer, or my way of thinking.
“They couldn’t care less. All they wanted to hear was, ‘I’m carrying on the flame because of what my dad didn’t finish, and that’s why I’m racing.’ No, I race because I love racing. Simple.
“I loved my dad. I’m proud of him – he was amazing, what he achieved. But I’m forging my own path. I’m not racing to be a continuation of Gilles Villeneuve. That’s fine.
“And they were getting angry. So I said, ‘OK, I’m not even going to talk about him anymore because it’s pointless. There’s no constructive discussion. You don’t actually care.'”
This week, Formula 1 visits Madrid for the first time since 1981, when the last Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama saw Gilles Villeneuve’s final victory — a masterclass of defensive driving in an ill-handling Ferrari.
One of Gilles Villeneuve’s abiding characteristics was his refusal to give up – as at Zandvoort in 1979, when he tried to drive back to the pits on three wheels
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Jacques was just 11 when his father died and spent much of his formative years at boarding school. His parents’ marriage was under strain as Gilles focused obsessively on his racing career.
“When he died, I hadn’t seen him for a year or two,” Jacques said. “He wasn’t really living with us. It was an odd situation.
“So I never know if it’s a real memory or something I was told growing up, mainly by my mother. That’s very confusing.
“So it’s nice to finally be able to connect the dots. I think the film is quite accurate about those formative years.”
Villeneuve is one of only three world champions who were sons of legendary F1 drivers. All three had different motivations for entering motorsport and complex relationships with their fathers’ legacies.
Jacques now works as a pundit for F1 TV and Canal+
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Jacques’ former teammate Damon Hill, for example, worked as a motorcycle courier because litigation following his father Graham’s death in a plane crash left the family in financial ruin. Nico Rosberg’s father Keke, the 1982 champion, had only limited involvement in Nico’s karting career and kept a low profile afterward. Nico could have pursued engineering but declined an offer from Imperial College London to focus on racing.
Children of successful racers often struggle with the weight of expectations when pursuing a similar career.
“If you’re doing this sport for the wrong reasons, you’ll never make it,” Villeneuve said. “You have to truly, personally, deep down, love it. You have to be willing to take the punches because you’ll get plenty.
“You get put back in place very easily on the clock. It’s very simple. How do you react to that?
“Especially during your formative years, when you start in Formula 3. That’s when you take the biggest beatings. You need to build some kind of armor around yourself.
“That’s how it happened. But it also gave me the freedom to just be myself and not carry that weight.
“I think that’s something I took from my dad without even realizing it. Not because of who he was as a racer, but who he was outside the car – which was exactly the same person. He was at home the same way he was at the racetrack.
Talent-spotted by 1976 world champion James Hunt while racing in Formula Atlantic, Gilles made his F1 debut in a McLaren
Photo by: Getty Images
“Whatever he was doing was always very self-centered. He did love his family, but he was selfish in that he was the only one who wanted to play on his pickup truck when he wanted to climb a mountain. That was all that mattered to him.
“And we could play with him if we did things his way. As a boy, it was super cool when I could go on his pickup truck with him — I was in paradise.
“But then I could see his attitude toward risk — pushing the limits, but with respect. Respect for his opponents. And always wanting to beat the next challenge.
“And often, by doing it, he was showing everyone, ‘I can do it, you can’t.’ That was basically his life story: ‘I can do this, you can’t’.
“And even when he bought his chopper, he tried to do loop-the-loops because he’d been told it couldn’t do it. Things like that.
“I took a lot from him in that regard. But with a different education, so I think it allowed me to calculate risk a bit better.
“But I don’t have many memories of him as a father. I don’t know if they never existed or if I’ve just put them away since he died. That was my way of surviving.
“What’s amazing is how, over the last few years, people have opened up about their time with my dad.
“Even [Alain] Prost, or others who raced with him, people who never dared before, I guess. And the picture I’m getting is so different from the one I got from my mother.”
The Toronto International Film Festival will host the global premiere of Villeneuve: Rise of a Legend on September 19, with a Quebec theatrical release in November, ahead of a global release next year.
One of the last images of Gilles, shortly before his fatal accident in qualifying for the 1982 Belgian GP
Photo by: Getty Images
