Le Mans Rookie Villeneuve Dreams Of Emulating Hill

Jacques Villeneuve, making his Le Mans debut on Saturday, dreams of earning a line in the record books.

Jacques Villeneuve, making his Le Mans debut on Saturday, dreams of earning a line in the record books alongside the late Graham Hill.

The Canadian, who knows his motor racing history, can join Britain's Hill as the only other man to have achieved motor racing's triple crown of the Formula One world title, the Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans.

The 36-year-old Villeneuve, who won the Indy 500 in 1995 and was an F1 world champion with Williams two years later, is entering the prestigious 24-hour sportscar race at the wheel of a diesel-fuelled Peugeot 908.

"I always wanted to race at Le Mans and when Peugeot called me, I said yes immediately," said Villeneuve, who left Formula One last year.

"The car is not that different to drive but there are other things that make this race really special.

"One is that you have to drive at night. When I did it for the first time in testing, it was a real discovery.

"The main difficulty is the traffic, because some cars are not quite as fast as ours. When you get traffic at night and rain on top of that, it can get really tricky."

Another change from the world of Formula One is that Le Mans is a team affair, with three drivers sharing stints at the wheel of the same car.

"That's new to me but it's great," Villeneuve said. "There are no egos involved. The atmosphere in the team is fantastic."

In the past, Formula One world champions -- a total of 18 before Villeneuve -- often tried their luck at Le Mans at least once.

But now F1 drivers rarely enter the endurance race, because the calendar has become more crowded and a grand prix is often staged the same weekend as Le Mans. This year's coincides with the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis.

Villeneuve is also promoting his first music recording, Private Paradise, which comes out in France on Monday and includes a tribute to his father, Gilles, who was killed in a crash in practice for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder in 1982.