Team: Venturi Formula E Team
Drivers: Jacques Villeneuve and Stephane Sarrazin
Team Owner: Gildo Pallanca Pastor
2014/15 Championship: 9th
Last year produced a lacklustre year for Venturi. Bearing in mind they had two of the quickest drivers on the grid. Unfortunately, their pace was not shown in races due to technical issues, penalties and crashes. The first race of last year’s championship was most probably the unluckiest for them with Nick Heidfeld going airborne after a crash with e.Dams’ Nicolas Prost at the last corner whilst battling for the lead.
The first two rounds of last season were dismal for Heidfeld with a 13th place finish in Beijing and a disqualification at the second round of last season at Malaysia. The rest of the season, however, showed some improvement with the two drivers consistently placing in the lower part of the top ten or just on the cusp of points. The penultimate round of the championship saw a season-best 3rd for Nick Heidfeld showing that the pace was there but they needed to have reliability and fortune on their side. At the end of season one, Venturi finished 9th in the Teams Championship with 53 points.
Jacques Villeneuve:
Date of Birth: 09/04/1971
Place of Birth: Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec
Formula E Races: 0
Formula E Wins: 0
Jacques Villeneuve makes history as he is the first former F1 world champion to race in Formula E and joins the Venturi team for the 2015/2016 season teammates to Stephane Sarrazin.
Villeneuve was 15 when he started to follow in his father’s footsteps – four years after the death of his father Giles who spent six years in Grand Prix racing with Ferrari, winning six races before losing his life in a crash during the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix.
Jacques competed in Italian Formula 3 followed by the Japanese Formula 3 Championship in 1992. The following year he returned to North America, where a third place finish in the Formula Atlantic Championship secured him a drive in the IndyCar series.
He took an unconventional route into Formula 1, racing in the IndyCar Series earning the Rookie of the Year award in his first season and then taking the drivers’ championship in 1995. That led to his move to Formula One, securing a seat at Williams alongside Damon Hill. After almost winning the title in his first season, he would later go on to win the championship in 1997 with seven wins after a close title battle with the Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher.
After drives with BAR, Sauber and Renault he left Formula 1 in 2006 to return to America. He’s competed in sports car racing (for Peugeot in the 2007 and 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans) NASCAR, the V8 Supercars Championship and the FIA World Rallycross Championship.
Stephane Sarrazin:
Date of Birth: 02/11/1975
Place of Birth: Barjac, France
Formula E Races: 11
Formula E Wins: 0
He clinched two karting titles and progressed to single seaters becoming the French Formula Renault champion in 1994. He went on to claim the Formula 3 national title before graduating to Formula 3000. Sarrazin achieved his childhood dream in 1999 competing in his first Formula 1 race at the Brazilian Grand Prix. He stepped in for the injured Luca Badoer at Minardi but retired midway through the race.
Despite being selected for testing roles at the Prost Grand Prix and Toyota F1 teams, Sarrazin converted his efforts to rally in 2004. He joined the WRC with Subaru and finished in the top-10 at every event in his debut year. Moving through the ranks in endurance racing, Sarrazin joined the LMP1 class to compete in the Le Mans 24 Hour with the prestigious Peugeot outfit. He twice stood on the podium during his time at the team before moving to Toyota in the World Endurance Championship.
