Jacques Villeneuve vs Williams F1: What Led to the Team Banning Him From Entering Their Garage

Today former Formula 1 world champion and Williams F1 driver, Jacques Villeneuve celebrates his 49th birthday. The 1997 Formula 1 victor is the last driver to have won the Drivers’ World Championship for the Williams F1 team. He is most famous for profoundly disparaging the condition of Williams F1 in the current era.

The relationship has become so sore that Williams F1 banned him from entering the team motorhomes and garage.

Villeneuve is a former F1 driver and currently competes in NASCAR. He has won the Indy car championship(1995 CART championship) and Indy 500, only the 3rd driver ever to achieve the fate. Additionally, he is the only Canadian driver ever to win an F1 World Championship or the Indy 500.

Villeneuve comes from a family of racers, his father Gilles Villeneuve drove for McLaren and Ferrari with six career victories. His uncle Jacques Villeneuve Sr is also a racing driver who drove in the Indy Championship.

Jacques Villeneuve not happy with the state of Williams F1

The 1997 Formula 1 victor is the last driver to have won the Drivers’ World Championship for the British team. Currently, he is a vocal critic of the team management and their efforts to revive the backmarker team.

In an interview with Le Journal De Montreal he even went out to say, “What’s the idea of helping the small teams who don’t deserve it?”

“Does an organization like Williams have the right to be as fast as Mercedes or Ferrari? The answer is obviously no. Frankly, the way they have been working for a few years now, they’re not even in the same category.”

Former F1 title holders Villeneuve has been a vocal critic of the Williams F1 team. The Canadian believes that he has pinpointed the starting point of the group’s downfall. As per him, the issues started when Williams F1 chose to list itself on the stock market.

While some might say that Villeneuve has decreased himself to an armchair pundit, there is a trace of truth in his words. His recent spat with Williams began in 2017 over the issue of paid drivers. When fellow Canadian Lance Stroll joined the outfit, Villeneuve wasn’t happy with the move. He even called the driver ‘worst rookie ever’ on multiple occasions. And since then he has been very vocal about the issues with his former team.