Jacques Villeneuve is the first and only Canadian F1 world champion to date. Before even getting into F1, the Canadian also won the IndyCar series in 1995, taking the Indy 500 win in the same year. Being a motorsport veteran, Villeneuve has surely secured numerous lucrative contracts throughout his career. So, what is Jacques Villeneuve’s net worth?
Jacques Villeneuve’s motorsports career spanned over two decades. During this time, he raced in F1, IndyCar, and even NASCAR. He also competed for legendary teams like Williams and Sauber in F1 and Andretti in IndyCar.
What is Jacques Villeneuve’s net worth?
Jacques Villeneuve’s net worth is reported to be around $50 million [€43.2 million], as per Celebrity Net Worth. The Canadian F1 star reportedly earned an estimated $115 million [€99.5 million] in salary and endorsements during his motorsports career.
Once Villeneuve left Williams in 1999, his salary was reported to be $16 million [€13.8 million] per year, till the end of his F1 career. After his racing career, Villeneuve has maintained a steady source of income by appearing quite often on Sky Sports UK, and Italy. He has also invested in motorsport ventures co-owning racing teams over the years.
Other than this, the 54-year-old also owns a huge collection of antique cars, further adding to his investment portfolio. He also owned properties in Quebec, Switzerland and Monaco, but some of these were put on sale, and have even been sold over the last seven years.
Villeneuve also owned a Dassault Falcon 50 private jet back in his F1 days. This type of jet was valued at anywhere from $6 million and $25 million [€5 million and €21 million] back in those days. He has since sold this jet.
Tax troubles for Jacques Villeneuve
Since 2017, Quebec’s primary tax-collecting agency has pursued Jacques Villeneuve for $1.7 million [€1.4 million] in unpaid taxes. The Canadian was also named in the Pandora Papers in 2021. These papers were leaked documents that revealed multiple celebrities’ offshore investments.
It was revealed through these papers that Villeneuve set up several off-shore businesses in the tax havens that are The Bahamas and The British Virgin Islands in the 1990s and 2000s. This way, he could receive income and endorsements, without paying the required Canadian income tax.
Villeneuve bizarrely declared only $6,431 [€5,565] in income in 2010. He even claimed a tax credit for low-income families that year.
On the personal front, Villeneuve has been married three times. He married Johanna Martinez in 2006 and got divorced in 2009. The couple had two children together. He then married Camila Lillo in 2012, and they also had two children before divorcing. In 2023, he married Giulia Marra and had three more children.
Jacques Villeneuve is Canada’s most successful racing driver. He followed in his father Gilles’ footsteps and surpassed his legacy. He is also remembered for his fierce rivalry with Michael Schumacher in the late 1990s. Their crash during the 1997 European GP made him part of F1 folklore.
