My favourite picture of Gilles, at Long Beach in 1980. Pure unaldulterated talent. Enzo called him the "crown Prince of destruction". The second picture is an example Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I was at Zolder the day G.V. lost his life. I was directly over the Ferrari pit area. I photograghed him get into the car, drive out for qualifying, and never return. After a few minutes an eerie calm came over pit lane. The cars stopped, and nothing was announced that I can recall.The next day, the local papers were full of photo's of the crash,and how he ploughed into the back of another slower car and was catapulted out of the car and into the fence and or armco, killing him instantly. We returned to the track the next day to see our beloved Ferrari team in action, only to find out the whole team had packed up and returned to the factory. We were due at the factory in the next 48 hrs for an appointment with Mr Carlo Tazziolli. It was an inspirational sight to drive up to the factory and see those green fences and gates covered with flowers and cards of all descriptions. It showed how many and how loyal his fans were. They were from all over the world. Was he better or worse than that driver or this driver, who knows, it is theoretical now. What is important is the fact that he was one of the greats of F1. Cheers M.Glegg
Although I'm after GV's time (he died in 1982, I was born Nov. 1985), I've seen video's of him and some of his races. Holy Jesus, he had no fear! He drove the car to the edge, every lap, every corner. That pic of him at Long Beach is just perfectly GV. As a side note, my grandpa made a comment to me one time about GV that I still remember. It was when I first got into some of the "faster" go-karts, and I was pushing to the edge (and sometimes past it) every corner, every lap. There were times I'd have a half a lap lead, and I'd still be sliding around pushing as hard as humanly possible. After the race, he told me about GV and how he drove. He said "the way you're driving reminds me of him." He complains quite a bit about "you need to calm down, and work on consitancy". Although I'm getting better at "consistancy", he still scolds me about pushing so hard when I have a huge lead. (In fact, one of my recent races, I broke the engine while holding a 20 second lead on a track where I run 30 second lap times.....oops...)
Over time you'll develop a discipline that will allow you to balance to the minimum effort for the max result. Regardless of that the thing I've notice about champions is that it's not just about winning but also about demoralising your opponents with blistering performance regardless of the lead. Looks like you're in that mould. Keep it up.
I think he's reffering of what JV is trying to do by getting Sauber(BMW), to keep him, not the whole Button mess.
Watch the closing laps of the 1979 French GP. Giles & Rene Arnoux put on the most exciting battle for 2nd place in GP history.[/QUOTE] Greatest last few laps of a race I ever saw. Even in a lesser car GV showed Arnoux who he was fcuking with. Watch those last 2 laps and you'll know what GV was about. Also see 1981 Spanish GP; the Ferrari was probably the worst handling car in the field and yet he won. I think his Michelins were completely worn out. Amazing...
No question GV was among the best ever and one of the most fun to watch and I really did love his sense of style. He indeed pushed for all he was worth every time he was in the car. But.... he died in the car as well. Lots of people predicted such an end when he first came to F1 because of his attitude and style. Just like Senna. Fast? Yes. Massive talent? Yes. Good judgement and race sense? NO. Look at Fangio. 5 world championships and winner of 52% of all the F1 races he entered. For Schumacher to have the same win percentage he would need well over 100 wins at this point. Not only that, but during Fangios 9 years of F1 career, no less than 22 drivers were killed in the sport. Think about that. When Fangio was racing, you didnt get many mistakes. Fangio was the all time master not because he was flamboyant or pushed like a madman every lap. He was the best because no matter the challenge, car, track or conditions he was able to put forward exactly the effort required to dominate and win. Never more, never less. In his entire career he only had a single serious accident. He dominated on a level that demoralized his competition. Moss went to Mercedes in '55 feeling he was finally going to win it all. A couple of races later he knew who was the teacher and who was the student. Its great to enjoy watching guys like GV, Ronnie Peterson, Senna, De Portago and other very fast, very talented and hard driving guys. But model your driving on guys like Fangio and Prost and Clark. I frequently run at Road Atlanta with a good friend of mine who has a 3.0 IROC bodied Carrera setup as a track car. He has more power and lots more tire than my car, but mine is lighter and has better brakes. Going into turn 10a, he loves to brake late and pitch the car sideways into the corner. He slides it all over the place, catches it with the throttle and blasts out 10b in a blaze of glory and full opposite lock. Great fun, looks impressive and I crack a smile every time I am behind him. But I also gain at least a second per lap every time through there. Terry
Hmm, hard to say. The accident was a combination of things: He was enraged because of Pironi's betrayal (that makes it GV's fault), the pressure of getting a hot lap in before the end of qualifying (wouldn't happen today) and a bone headed move on Mass' part who did his cool down lap on the ideal line. Finally a misunderstanding between the drivers. Some people even accused Ferrari for not building the car strong enough so that the seat belt anchor points won't get ripped out. But I think that is going too far: If the impact is so strong, that those anchors let go (and the rest of the car disintegrates) a fatal fracture of the spine is likely anyway. Would GV still be alive if it hadn't been for that freak accident? Who knows. Ironically Pironi fell victim to a similar accident (which ended his career) only months later: He got airborne on Prost's Renault rear tire. Prost did nothing wrong, but the mist/spray/rain hanging between the trees on the long Hockenheim back straight made the Renault all but invisible to the fast approaching Pironi. R.I.P. Gilles and Didier
I agree, no way to know. GV by 1982 had tempered his style to a degree and become much smoother and consistent. He was also faster than he had been early in his career. But, the red mist was still always just below the surface. As much as I liked GV, and he is among my favorites, he was not in the same league as a Fangio or Clark. Not because he didnt have as much raw talent, he may have had more. But he didnt have the calculating brain and discipline to go with the raw talent. Being the best of the best takes both and is extremely rare. Terry
Is there any way to get past GP races? I'd love to get these: 1977 Long Beach GP (Best GP I ever saw) 1979 French GP (Villeneuve v. Arnoux-'nuf said) 1981 Spanish GP (Villeneuve wins in a horrible car) 1982 German GP (Tambay rescues the Scuderia!)
I have to agree. I loved watching Villeneuve for his passion, but Clark was my all time favorite driver. It's good to see that people still remember him. He seems to get lost in the shuffle somehow.
This post indicates a very common misconception with GV. 1. Yes he was completely fearless. 2. Yes he had enormous determination to get the very best out of any car everytime he got in it (pity many of the modern drivers did not have 5% of this ...). 3. But he was NOT a crazy madman, that destroyed cars. Now you are all going to attack me with point number 3, but let me explain. This crazy madman rumour started with his first test in F1, with McLaren. And yes he did spin on his first lap on every corner. BUT there is a reason he did this. He only had a very few laps for this test and he was finding the limit as quickly as possible, thus he spun on PURPOSE, and note did NOT damage the car at all. This was also his first taste of F1, straight out of a Formula Alantic (~240 hp). The McLaren guys had never seen this before and thought he was crazy. I believe he did actually run one race for McLaren and would have got points except the car failed ... I think overheated and he pitted to save the car! Now fast forward to his career at Ferrari. Most of his career at Ferrari the cars were ****, ie. flat 12 engined beasts when everybody else had clever ground effects (as per the 1980's) cars. In those cr@p cars he performed miracles ... and when trying to perform miracles and thus driving the car right on it's limit every lap ... you have a few offs. He put that same flat 12 Ferrari on pole at Monaco ... astonishing everybody! He also won a race (or two) by selecting the softer compound tyres (his team mate thought he was stupid) but by careful, brilliant driving made them last and maximised this advantage and won! He also won a race where he kepted something like 5 cars trailing him in a row all the way to the end ... never put a single foot wrong and thus they could not get past. He did not swerve all over the track like MS, he just drove perfectly and never gave them an opening. There was an excellent article in the Motorsport magazine a few years ago ... talking to his engineers, etc. and they ALL stated that he was the very best ever driver they have been able to work with. His sensitivity and ability in the wet ... thus cannot be a madman, if you are fast in the wet, you need to be smooth and light of touch. What we all saw (those lucky enough) was a passionate man who lived to RACE, he did not race to make his life fun, or to get the girls, he RACED because that is what made him. Very few people have that, Senna, MS and definitely Tazio and maybe Stirling Moss and Fangio. We as normal humanbeings are used to people making sensible, staying alive decisions ... people like Senna and Gilles didn't think like that, because there is NO point to life without the racing, win, etc. Thus what was Gilles doing driving that 3 wheeled Ferrari back to the pits? ... well he wanted his team to fix the bloody thing so he could go back into the race. Ofcourse he did not realise the full extent of the damage ... and I guess in his (perfectly understandable) haste went too fast and caused mucho damage. While I fully accept that Gilles is improving as time passes by and memories get better and larger than life, he has my full admiration for his total commitment, and not this 'let the race come to me' BS that soooo many modern poofter drivers have. Why does MS and Kimi look so good, 'cause they have 50% of the determination to win that Gilles had ... the rest on the grid have less than 5%. Gilles would have completely dominated the sport if he had NOT driven for Ferrari (who went from good to bad cars at his time). He should have rightfully won the WC instead of being loyal to the team ... and letting a driver with 75% of his talent win it instead. He then would have become the complete racer with the right car under him ... Ferrari really let him down, as when it was his turn the cars were not good enough, even for Gilles to win. And Ferrari let him down in the WC year too, as Gilles was faster and doing better than the number 1 driver, mid season and thus Ferrari said to the 2 drivers, who ever has more points by a certain race will get the full support of the team. Gilles only just lost out ... and one of the reasons was the the other Ferrari driver took his wing off in one of the races that counted (not on purpose ...). If that chance occurrence had not happened, Gilles would have been promoted to Number 1 and won the WC!!! Pete ps: Please note that the specifics I have quoted or stated are completely from memory ...
I have that magazine somewhere. You are right that he is often unfairly perceived as reckless. I will have a dig around for the magazine. When he qualified at a soaked Watkins Glen a full 11 seconds faster than his rivals he showed some of his immense control. A reckless driver would have tried to be 20 seconds faster and put it in the fence. After the famous battle with Arnoux for second place in Dijon he said "Those few laps were just fantastic for me - out braking each other and trying to race for the line, touching each other but without wanting to put the other car out.", hardly the words of a madman. Senna deliberately crashed into a competitor, yet Gilles has the reckless tag attached to him. "He's different from the rest of us, on a separate level ..." Jacques Laffite describing Gilles Gilles was just an amazing driver in a less than amazing car. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Keep an eye on ebay. Once in a while somebody offers all the Villeneuve races on tape. Not sure that is legal, but they can be bought. Also you might want to check out these guys: http://www.dukevideousa.com/ Duke video on the Isle of Man was a good place for long lost F1 footage.
That quote of GV in Anthony's post is exactly the same thing Richard Petty once said, especially the fear of crashing. I can't remember if Dan Gurney or Mario Andretti said this: "if you are in 100% total control of your car over the course of an entire lap, you are going too slow"
I was at Indy in 03. I was walking thru the infield and happened to be on the fence on the back straight when JV's BAR came to a screeching halt. Along with what everyone figured at the time was JV's career! He jumped out of the car and came over to the fence. A few of us were able to shake hands with him and I told him "good job, your dad would have been proud! shake it off and you will be back keep your chin up mate." He acknowledged what I said and thanked me. Then he got on a golf cart and off he went. Great moment for me. Just another chance meeting for him Im sure.
It was Andretti. I have that quote in my wallet. It was the 'quote of the day' on my desk calendar on my birthday last year! "If everything is under control, you are going too slow." - Mario Andretti They are usually dull quotes from Anon about how as one door closes another opens etc.
In all fairness to Ferrari they DID deliver him the right car to win a WC in 1982. It was so good that even though Pironi had a severe accident that put him out for the rest of the year he was only passed in the points standings by Rosberg in one of the last races! Ferrari did win the constructors title that year. And for the record: Pironi didn't die in that accident. He died in a speedboat accident years later. Caio, Peter
I was under the impression that he was so enraged at Pironi out qualifying him that he jumped in his car and took off for another qualifying attempt without fastening his safety belts. I have heard this from many some who were at the race. Is my understanding wrong?
WHOA! Interesting. I have never heard this one and can't really tell. However all reports I saw on TV and read in the newspaper after it happened talked about the weak anchor points in the Ferrari that allowed the driver to come free off the car. If what you are saying is true, it would be indeed an interesting question whether he would have survived that crash. My guess is still not.
