Former Formula 1 driver Jacques Villeneuve recently shared a distressing message on social media. A pair of ‘heartless’ thieves have stolen a bronze statue of his father, Gilles Villeneuve. The tribute was located at the entrance of his museum in Canada. It has now been announced that the museum is offering twelve thousand Canadian dollars to anyone who returns the statue.
“I can’t sleep,” says an angry Jacques Villeneuve in a video on Instagram. “How can people be so heartless? Gilles represented Canada and Quebec on the international stage. There aren’t many like him. It’s disgraceful to steal such a monument. I don’t understand what goes through the minds or hearts of these thieves, if they have any.”
Reward
Images on social media show that only two bronze feet remain on the pedestal; the rest of the statue is gone. The museum has since announced that it is offering twelve thousand Canadian dollars in collaboration with a national car dealer and B&G Race Fuels to anyone who returns the statue to its rightful owners. “We ask no questions; the most important thing is that we bring Gilles back to his museum,” the organization wrote on Facebook.
Between 1977 and 1982, Gilles Villeneuve drove in sixty-seven Grand Prix races, winning six of them. In 1979, he came second in the world championship. He began his career with McLaren, but later switched to Ferrari. In 1982, he died in a crash during the qualifying round for the Belgian GP. A collision with German Jochen Mass proved fatal. However, this did not deter his son Jacques Villeneuve from following in his footsteps. And with success – in 1997, Jacques became the first Canadian world champion in Formula 1.
