1997 Jacques Villeneuve Championship Season Used Williams Renault F1 Suit

1997 Jacques Villeneuve Championship Season Used Rothmans Williams F1 Suit 

This suit was used by Jacques Villeneuve during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend. Williams ran a different Rothmans patch on the back, tops of shoulders and upper chest of the suit for Canada. This makes for a very vibrant suit to display as an ode to one the best F1 World Championship seasons and to Canada's only F1 World Champion. 

The 1997 F1 season was action-packed, with the season-long dual between Villeneuve and his rival, Michael Schumacher. Going into the infamous season finale at Jerez, Villeneuve had seven wins to Schumacher’s five, yet still trailed Michael by a single point.

This final race had a lot of hype surrounding it, with Schumacher’s teammate, Eddie Irvine, threatening to do anything and everything to spoil Villeneuve’s race thus ensuring Schumacher would be champion. On qualifying day Villeneuve posted a time of 1:21.072, which was then promptly matched by Schumacher. Then later in the session Villeneuve’s teammate, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, posted the exact 1:21.072 time as well! Rules dictated that whoever posted the time first would start ahead, so Villeneuve was on pole, with Schumacher in the second grid spot and Frentzen in third.

Michael bested Jacques off the line and it wasn’t until later in the race, by lap 48, that Villeneuve was close enough to make the move inside Schumacher at the Dry Sack curve. Villeneuve was already ahead when Schumacher appeared to drive into the side of Villeneuve, resulting in Schumacher’s car coming to a halt while Villeneuve was able to continue and finish the race as World Champion. Schumacher was found by the race officials to have deliberately rammed his car into Villeneuve’s and, as a result, had his points from the entire season wiped out after the race. Oddly enough, even in this tightly contested season, Villeneuve and Schumacher never shared a podium together.

The Jerez finale stayed in the minds of F1 fans for a long time. When Formula One polled fans in 2020 on which classic race should be replayed while the 2020 F1 season was delayed due to pandemic restrictions, fans chose the dramatic 1997 season finale at Jerez.

The suit comes with a Certificate Of Authenticity.