Gilles Villeneuve - The Legend That Could Have Been....

Full Name: Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve
Date of birth: 18 January 1950
Date of death: 8 May 1982
Nationality:  Canadian
Active years: 1977–1982
Teams: McLaren, Ferrari
Races: 68 (67 starts)
Championships: 0 (2nd in 1979)
Wins: 6
Podiums: 13
Career points: 107
Pole positions: 2
Fastest laps: 8
First race: 1977 British Grand Prix
First win: 1978 Canadian Grand Prix
Last win: 1981 Spanish Grand Prix
Last race: 1982 Belgian Grand Prix

A short history:

Gilles Villeneuve started his professional career in snowmobile racing in his native province of Quebec. He moved into single seaters, winning the US and Canadian Formula Atlantic championships in 1976, before being offered a drive in Formula One with the McLaren team at the 1977 British Grand Prix. He was taken on by reigning world champions Ferrari for the end of the season and from 1978 to his death in 1982 drove for the Italian team. He won six Grand Prix races in a short career at the highest level. In 1979 he finished second by four points in the championship to team-mate Jody Scheckter.

Born in Chambly, Que., Jan. 18, 1950, Villeneuve and his family moved to Berthierville when he was eight. His father, Seville, was a travelling piano tuner, and Gilles' first passion was music. He would practise his trumpet five or six hours a day. He married Joann Barthe in 1970, with whom he had two children, Jacques and Melanie.  During his early career Villeneuve took his family on the road with him in a motorhome during the racing season, a habit which he continued to some extent during his Formula One career. He often claimed to have been born in 1952. By the time he got his break in Formula One, he was already 27 years old and took two years off his age to avoid being considered too old to make it at the highest level of motorsports.

Villeneuve made his debut at the 1977 British Grand Prix, where he qualified 9th in McLaren's old M23, splitting the regular drivers Hunt and Jochen Mass who were driving newer M26s. (In the race he set fifth fastest lap and finished 11th after being delayed for two laps by a faulty temperature gauge.)

The Ferrari Years....

Starting with Ferrari in 1978, things would only get better for Villeneuve. His first year at Ferrari, Villeneuve placed 9th in the Driver's Race with his sole win at his home Grand Prix in Montreal.  Yet he also came 3rd in the Austrian Grand Prix.

1979, Villeneuve topped out his short lived career with a 2nd place finish for the driver's title with 3 wins and 4 2nd place finishes. Coming in right behind his teammate Jody Scheckter but with a combined offer, won the Constructor's Title for Ferrari with a large gap of 38 points.

The 1980 season was a complete disaster for Ferrari. Villeneuve had been considered favourite for the drivers championship by UK bookmakers, but only scored six points in the whole campaign in the 312T5 which had only partial ground effects. Scheckter scored only two points and retired at the end of the season.

For the 1981 season, Ferrari partnered  Villeneuve with Didier Pironi who noted that Villeneuve "had a little family [at Ferrari] but he made me welcome and made me feel at home overnight ... [He] treated me as an equal in every way."  There were a few races of note during the season, first being the Spanish Grand Prix, where Villeneuve kept five quicker cars behind him for most of the race using the superior straight-line speed of his car. After an hour and 46 minutes of racing Villeneuve led second-placed Jacques Laffite by only 0.22 seconds. At the Canadian Grand Prix Villeneuve damaged the front wing of his Ferrari and drove for most of the race in heavy rain with the wing obscuring his view ahead. There was a risk of being black flagged but eventually the wing became detached and Villeneuve drove on to finish third with the nose section of his car missing.

1982 Gilles Villeneuve's death...

On May 8, 1982, Villeneuve died after an accident during the final qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. At the time of the crash, Pironi had set a time 0.1s faster than Villeneuve for sixth place. Villeneuve was using his final set of qualifying tyres, which were probably already past their best, and many writers say that he was attempting to improve his time on his final lap. Some suggest that he was specifically aiming to beat Pironi. However, Villeneuve's biographer Gerald Donaldson quotes Ferrari race engineer Mauro Forghieri as saying that the Canadian, although pressing on in his usual fashion, was returning to the pits when the accident occurred. If so, he would not have set a time on that lap.

With eight minutes of the session left, Villeneuve came over the rise after the first chicane and caught Jochen Mass travelling much more slowly through the left-handed bend before the Terlamenbocht corner. Mass saw Villeneuve approaching at high speed and moved to the right to let him through on the racing line. At the same instant Villeneuve also moved right to pass the slower car. The Ferrari hit the back of Jochen Mass's car and was launched into the air at a speed estimated at 200–225 km/h (120–140 mph). It was airborne for over 100 m before nosediving into the ground and disintegrating as it somersaulted along the edge of the track. Villeneuve, still strapped to his seat, but without his helmet, was thrown a further 50 m from the wreckage into the catch fencing on the outside edge of the Terlamenbocht corner.

Several drivers stopped and rushed to the scene. John Watson and Derek Warwick pulled Villeneuve, his face blue, from the catch fence. The first doctor arrived within 35 seconds to find that Villeneuve was not breathing, although his pulse continued; he was intubated and ventilated before being transferred to the circuit medical centre and then by helicopter to University St Raphael Hospital where a fatal fracture of the neck was diagnosed.  Villeneuve was kept alive on life support while his wife travelled to the hospital and the doctors consulted with specialists worldwide. He died at 9:12 that evening.

Salut Gilles....

His Legacy....

Following his death in 1982, Île Notre-Dame Circuit was officially name changed to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

There is a star in the night sky also named for the legend, Villeneuve was given,  as a present by a group of Venetian supporters, complete with a certificate in the special "Parisian register of the sky", at the 1981 Italian Grand Prix eve, in Monza: the "Villeneuve star".

Constellation of Perseus AD = 3h 21m 26.6s De = +43 deg 19' 47" Magnitude = 4.96



Quotes about or by Gilles.

"He was the craziest devil I ever came across in Formula 1... The fact that, for all this, he was a sensitive and lovable character rather than an out-and-out hell-raiser made him such a unique human being" - Niki Lauda

At the funeral in Berthierville former team-mate Jody Scheckter delivered a simple eulogy: "I will miss Gilles for two reasons. First, he was the fastest driver in the history of motor racing. Second, he was the most genuine man I have ever known. But he has not gone. The memory of what he has done, what he achieved, will always be there."

"His death has deprived us of a great champion - one that I loved very much. My past is scarred with grief; parents, brother, son. My life is full of sad memories. I look back and see the faces of my loved ones, and among them I see him." - Enzo Ferrari

"I know no human being can do miracles but Gilles could really surprise us sometimes." - Jacques Laffite

"We will not forget him, as we are talking about a wound that will never heal completely. Nobody can fill the void he left." - Patrick Tambay

"He will remain as a member of the family of the truly great drivers in auto racing history. He did not race to finish. He did not race for points. He raced to win. He was small in stature, but he was a giant." - Juan Manuel Fangio


Check out the Musee de Gilles Villeneuve