Jacques Villeneuve explains why he was never intimidated by Michael Schumacher

Jacques Villeneuve theorised that his last name, and driver style, potentially influenced his Formula 1 rivalry with Michael Schumacher.

The pair “never really socialised” during their time together in Formula 1, says Villeneuve, who claimed that he “wasn’t impressed or afraid” of Schumacher in battle, something which he believes the F1 icon “wasn’t used to”.

Jacques Villeneuve on Michael Schumacher rivalry mindset

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Jacques Villeneuve vs Michael Schumacher was one of the more intense rivalries that Formula 1 has ever seen.

It was one which reached boiling point at the 1997 European Grand Prix, with that infamous collision between the title rivals. Villeneuve went on to take the crown. Schumacher was disqualified from the championship.

Villeneuve had arrived on the F1 scene at Williams in 1996 as the IndyCar champion. That year, his first grand prix win came at the Nurburgring, winning out in a gripping battle with the pursuing Ferrari of Schumacher.

Appearing recently on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Villeneuve was asked whether beating Schumacher for his first win brought any extra satisfaction.

“It was great, and he was in my mirrors the whole race,” Villeneuve responded.

“Partly because I was still racing the IndyCar way, which is, don’t build a gap.

“I was controlling Michael there. I was just keeping him in my mirror, because that’s what I was used to. That’s changed over the years, once I realised how you had to approach F1, but that took a while to change.”

Put to Villeneuve that it was a great race to watch, a typical Formula 1 race of high pressure chess, Villeneuve added: “Yes. You didn’t always need overtaking for a race to keep you on the edge of your seat.

“And he was always ever that close that a tiny mistake from me would have given him the lead, and then I wouldn’t have overtaken him afterwards.

“It’s always hard when you’re the prey, because you can only falter.”

The duo are intertwined in an iconic on-track F1 story. But, Villeneuve was asked how he and Schumacher rubbed along off the track.

“We never rubbed along,” he said. “Though it’s an odd one, because we never actually really socialised in all the years I was in F1.

“And he was my main competitor. So that’s really a strange one.”

Villeneuve was asked if this was because the competition between them was too intense.

“I’m not sure. Maybe because the Villeneuve name was still linked to Ferrari as well,” Villeneuve theorised, “maybe that had an effect.”

Jacques is the son of the late great Gilles Villeneuve, a Formula 1 and Ferrari icon.

“Because in Italy, you had fans that were for him and Ferrari, and fans that were also for me, and that unbalanced things a little bit.

“Also, because he knew that I didn’t care. That I wasn’t impressed or afraid of him, and he wasn’t used to that, I think.

“And that’s why in the battles I had with him, it didn’t always go good for him, because I just held strong against him.

“And same thing I noticed when I was at BAR afterwards. He would really take his time. There was some kind of, I don’t know if it’s respect, or not sure what’s going to happen, but he knew that I would just fight him. And that was it. Maybe coming from the States also helped.”

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Another moment which defined this rivalry was Estoril 1996, when Villeneuve passed Schumacher around the outside of the banked final corner.

As it turns out, Jock Clear, Villeneuve’s race engineer at the time, and later a long-serving Ferrari figure, had invertedly lit an extra spark in Villeneuve to attempt that pass.

Schumacher just so happened to be the one who Villeneuve executed it on.

Reflecting on that overtake, Villeneuve said: “I was very sad for many years, because the only camera angle was the onboard, which you didn’t really see all that happened. And then not many years ago, the footage from the outboard appeared, and like, ‘Oh, wow. Okay, now it looks good’.

“All the winter testing, that corner was reminding me of a one-mile oval, like Nazareth, for example, which is low banking, but still a bit of banking, that kind of corner. And in IndyCar, you would overtake cars on the outside, going around the outside, because of the tiny little banking that you get.

“So I spent the whole winter telling Jock and the team that I would overtake someone on the outside during the race. That was a goal.

“I know it sounds arrogant or pompous, but it was part of the fun, and that’s why I’ve always loved racing, is when you could have those moments as well, where you could actually be different, make it different, do something that you knew others wouldn’t do.

“Before the race, Jock said, ‘Okay, tell us on which lap, so we come with a spoon to pick up the pieces’. He shouldn’t have said that, because that was the little extra thing to push me doing it. I think he knew.

“And the amazing thing is, it happened not on a backmarker, but on Michael, whom I was fighting for a position.

“We were coming onto a backmarker, so he backed off just a little bit to give himself some breathing space. And that’s when I saw my moment. I thought, ‘Okay, he’s backed off a bit. I won’t lift, I’ll just go around the outside and surprise him’.

“And that was the only way you could overtake Michael, is by surprising him.”

Told that he was on the marbles for that pass, Villeneuve confirmed: “Yeah, the second-half of the corner, I remember.

“The first-half I was going, ‘Oh, wow, I’ve got him’. And then suddenly, I get on the marbles, and the car starts sliding, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh, that’s going to be painful’.

“But no, I stayed on the track. He had a little bit more momentum coming out of the car [sic]. Normally, on an oval, you come out of the corners faster, because you come from a higher height, a little bit downhill, with less steering angle. So that’s why the outside normally works. But add the tow of the slow car in front of me, and that just gave me enough speed to get ahead of Michael and then get in front.

“It was very close, and yeah, the car was moving on the marbles. It probably should have ended up in the wall.”

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