Great article on Gilles https://www.topgear.com/car-news/motorsport/why-gilles-villeneuve-was-greatest-f1-driver-them-all
"Gilles’s son Jacques of course went on to secure the racing CV that his father should have had. He won the Indy 500, the 1995 Champ Car series, the 1997 F1 World Championship and eleven Grand Prix victories. Like his dad he was competitive the moment he stepped into an F1 car, scoring pole position, fastest lap and second place in his first ever grand prix. But despite his obvious ability, you won’t find his name on lists of the all-time greats. His dad however, might not have been as complete a driver as a Fangio, Clark, Stewart, Prost, Senna, Schumacher or Alonso, but for me he was the fastest, most exciting of them all. As far as I’m concerned, he was the greatest driver that ever lived." Baaahh. Humbug. 'All due respect, there have been many more important than he.
As far as i'm concerned and many thousands around the world, Gilles was the greatest driver that ever lived....the only man that perhaps could match his talent was Nuvolari...the rest are distant thirds...
His car control was legendary. I haven't seen too many F1 drivers with the same abillity. A true legend! LSJ
This is a forum for opinion. So, you are entitled to yours. I agree with those you think Gilles was spectacular. He treated every lap like it was qualifying.
The anniversary of his death was celebrated in his native Berthierville. We gathered at the dealership where Joanne Villeneuve greeted the participants, then off to the town hall of Berthierville where we were received by the mayor. A visit to the museum and then lunch. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Very nice to see this kind of hommage to Ferrari's greatest legend..wish i could have been thre, thank for the pictures.
How beautiful, this meeting in Berthierville. In Belgium, the Scuderia Ferrari Club Genk also gathered today at the Zolder Race Circuit, where the tragedy happened. Some of the most faithful members of the Club went to pay hommage to the great Gilles, at the statue, close to the corner where the awful accident happened in 1982. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
He was also very reckless, and some predicted that he wouldn't grow old at this rate. He was apparently exactly the same piloting his helicopter or driving carelessly on public road. Some people who accepted a lift from him were absolutely terrified and refused any similar offer in future. I think there was a death wish in Giles Villeneuve that went beyond F1. I must say that I was not surprised to hear about his demise at Zolder. Sad all the same, and a tragedy for his family.
Knowing the average life expectancy of an F1 driver, no one could have been terribly surprised. However, I was still devastated. It was Gilles . . .
A few more snaps from today's commemoration. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
And the icing on the cake, seeing your car make it on the cover of the document holder for the City of Berthierville. Image Unavailable, Please Login
People have their opinion of what makes a driver great. I believe the tributes and appreciations that continue to be paid to Gilles, demonstrate a greatness far beyond what he achieved record wise. The legend that is Gilles Villeneuve, is as much about the man he was as it is about his accomplishments. Salute Gilles, you are not forgotten.
I was very fortunate to have seen Villeneuve race in person several times he was spectacular but he was dangerous too. Not many drives would have passé s Mass like he did at Zolder he knew on,y really one speed that was flat out. Even if the car was not up to it. He could have bee but champion in 79 but he had loyalty and principals .. in that he was the last of a generation
And that's no way to go racing. A driver who don't care about managing his car, keeping his tyres in good shape, or not wearing out his brakes, but pushes his car lap after lap regardless, can't probably achieve much in the long run. Villeneuve was very spectacular to watch, because he drove with reckless abandon, and his do-or-die attitude made him the favourite with the crowd, but that approach didn't translate in overall results. Villeneuve drove like a matador waiting to be gored by the bull. And that's what happened at Zolder ...
+1 let's bear in mind that with the exception of the 1979 and 1982 seasons Gilles wasn't driving a car capable of winning the championship. Ferrari encouraged his balls-out driving style and (amazingly)the car usually survived the abuse.
Thank you for posting Bernie. I saw Gilles drive the Wolf CanAm car at Watkins Glen, replacing the abruptly retired Chris Amon. He didn't always drive on the ragged edge, I remember his gearchanges up and down through the box were sheer artistry.
Overall results? Boo. Completely unfair. If Villeneuve had not valued integrity so highly, he would have easily outscored Scheckter in 1979 and been WC in his second full year of F1. Instead of pulling a Pironi, Villeneuve kept his word and respected Scheckter as Ferrari #1, yielding on multiple occasions, or refraining from passing him when he was obviously quicker, to allow Scheckter to win the title. That Ferrari produced horrible cars for the following two seasons was not Villeneuve's fault, on the contrary, that Villeneuve was able to win anything in those seasons was nothing short of miraculous. When Ferrari did finally produce a competitive car again in 1982, Villeneuve was getting the results to be on track for the title. Villeneuve got more out of the cars given to him than nearly any other driver could have - in Scheckter's own words, Jody stated that "Villeneuve was the fastest racing driver that history has ever known" [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jww4exylILs[/ame] Scheckter was not along among the drivers in his opinion - let's recall the now legendary 1979 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. The Friday practice had rain and extremely wet conditions. Drivers went out and pushed their limits, scared themselves silly, went as fast as they dared... then watched as Gilles went out in even worse conditions, ran lap after lap, ending up 11 SECONDS faster than anyone else. His teammate Scheckter said "I scared myself rigid that day. I thought I had to be quickest. Then I saw Gilles's time and I still don't really understand how it was possible. Eleven seconds!" "When we saw him going out in the rain, we said, 'This we've got to see'," renowned F1 journalist Dennis Jenkinson recalled. "Some members of the press, who think they know it all, don't bother going out when it rains. But I was on the corner watching him and all the hardball members of the press were with me. We had to see this. It was something special. Oh, he was fantastic! He was unbelievable!" Nigel Roebuck was another 'hardballer' who braved the elements and saw the performance first hand. "Gilles was the one bloke who made you go and look for a corner in a practice session, because you knew that where everybody else would go through it as if on rails, Gilles would be worth watching. That day in the rain at Watkins Glen was almost beyond belief. It truly was. "You would think he had 300 horsepower more than anybody else. It just didn't seem possible. The speed he was travelling at didn't bear any relation to anybody else. He was 11 seconds faster. Jody was next fastest and couldn't believe it, saying he had scared himself rigid! I remember [Jacques] Laffite in the pits just giggling when Gilles went past and saying, 'Why do we bother? He's different from the rest of us. On a separate level'." On returning to the pits Villeneuve whipped off his helmet and beamed at the assembled members of the paddock, who were looking on in disbelief. "That was fun," he said. "I was flat in fifth on the straight, about 160mph. It should have been faster but the engine had a misfire and was down about 600 revs. But for that I could have gone quite a bit faster, but then maybe I would have crashed." "Gilles was the last great driver. The rest of us are just a bunch of good professionals." - Alain Prost Harvey Postlethwaite, who was hired by Ferrari to design the follow-on and much more successful 126C2 that won the Constructors' Championship in 1982, later commented on the 126C: "That car...had literally one quarter of the downforce that, say Williams or Brabham had. It had a power advantage over the Cosworths for sure, but it also had massive throttle lag at that time. In terms of sheer ability I think Gilles was on a different plane to the other drivers. To win those races, the 1981 GPs at Monaco and Jarama — on tight circuits — was quite out of this world. I know how bad that car was." Another misconception about Villeneuve - apologies to the others, but Villeneuve didn't actually drive flat out all the time. In that era, especially of the turbo cars and fuel consumption constraints, it wasn't possible. That was why Pironi was able to double cross Villeneuve in 1982, because Villeneuve was following team orders and slowing to preserve the car and reduce fuel consumption so that they would make the finish line, and Pironi ignored the team orders AND the team protocol to hold position at the latter part of the race (Pironi certainly wasn't faster than Villeneuve). Let's go back to 1981 Jarama for another example, when Villeneuve drove an extremely strategic race to get a win in that terrible 126C. It didn't handle, only had laggy power, Villeneuve was able to minimize it's weaknesses and use it's advantages to beat at least 6 other cars that were better than the Ferrari (2 each of Lotus, Williams, McLaren). That's not a car breaker, that's a brilliant strategic driver.
I cannot see how what I wrote contradict your quotes. We knew the guy was very brave and fearless, and drove with no safety margin. Everybody accepted that, but ultimately it was his downfall.
First, he did not drive with reckless abandon 100% of the time, contrary to what you wrote. I gave you just one example where he drove very strategically to win a race nobody thought was possible - Jarama 1981. You wrote "that approach didn't translate in overall results" - yet I quoted examples that showed he achieved overall results that no one else could have achieved, counter to what you wrote. His driving style and execution actually did translate into overall results that no one else could have got with those terrible Ferraris of 1980 and 81. Villeneuve was not just brave and fearless, it was unmatched skill and ability that made him so different.
