I had never seen this footage before, Gilles's typical start is enough to make my day!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrdatellbu0
This reminds me of how much better the track flow when there is not a chicane every 100 yards to slow the cars down.
Agreed....except for one slight correction: "This reminds me of how much better the track flow was when there was not a chicane every 100 yards to slow the cars down." 'A few exceptions of course (Road America comes to mind...)....but none that I recall on the F1 circuit.
Great times. These days, you can out brake yourself, go off track, floor the gas, gain advantage, and nothing happens.
LOLO, and back then not anyone could make a good start..you had to really be good at it...Gilles was by far the best, he did this several times during the 79 season...I remenber that Jones after the race was saying he didn't understand how the Ferrari was alongside him!! he said" i was expecting maybe a Renault..not a ferrari!" Prost also said" Gilles had the quickest starts of everyone..he was so much quicker..he must have had some trick!!
A couple of years later, same track, now in a turbo car....just to show it was no coincidence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B596P9pBT1Q
I beg to differ. Jimmy before him wasn't too shabby himself. "Clark came through at the end of the first lap of the race so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident." Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jimmy Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa-Francorchamps - 1967. "Those were the days my friends. We thought they'd never end..." lorenzobandini
Clark usualy started at the front..since he had the fastest car and he was the fastest driver it was bound to happen!! Gilles was the fastest driver with somethimes the worst car, as a result he was most of the time outside the fron row...or the second...still that didn't prevent him from leaqding into the first corner...and untill the tires begun to desintegrate themselves...