Remembering Gilles at play
Saturday is the anniversary of the death of Gilles Villeneuve at Zolder in 1982. I still recall Gilles’s four years in Formula Atlantic, and his 1976 season in particular when he won all but one race and began his leap to Formula 1 legend status with Ferrari. Back in 1976 and ‘77 former March F1 and F2 team manager Ray Wardell ran Villeneuve’s Atlantic cars out of Kris Harrison’s Ecurie Canada shop in Toronto, and Wardell has some funny stories to tell about Gilles.
“I remember the first time we went to a track together,” he says. “We went to Savannah in Georgia to test the new March Atlantic car. Bobby Rahal was going to drive the car first and then Gilles was going to try it.
“Gilles was driving us in a rental car and we arrived at the track and the gate was closed. So I got out and opened it, and Gilles pulled the car through and stopped. As I was getting back in the car he decided he was going to do a tyre burnout. He just lit the rear tyres up on the rental car and kept going until one burst! There was so much smoke I couldn’t breathe and I thought, ‘What the hell have I got involved in here?’
“Then about three or four hours later we were sitting in the pitroad waiting for our turn with the new car. Gilles and I were sitting in the hire car chatting. He’d changed the flat rear tyre and Rahal cruised by on track in his hire car. Well, the conversation immediately stopped. Gilles turned on the ignition and we were off down the pitroad. He was going to catch Rahal.
“We were hauling ass down the straight and there was almost a 90-degree corner at the end. I was thinking, ‘He’s gonna brake. No, he’s not gonna brake!’ And he threw the rental car sideways. I was hanging onto the hand-strap on the roof and my feet were almost in Villeneuve’s lap as we went around this right-hander on two wheels. I thought, ‘my God!’ I’d never seen car control like this. He kept going round the track like that until some more tyre tread flew off and he had to stop. That was Gilles. Any opportunity he had he was going to drive fast.”
Wardell recalls how close the Villeneuve family was and how champion-to-be Jacques behaved as a child. “I had quite a nice relationship with the family. Gilles and Joann were inseparable and little Jacques hardly spoke any English. He would come creeping round the car and if he saw me standing there he’d come running by and kick me in the shins. Then he’d run away laughing his head off!”
Wardell also recalls that, fierce racer though Gilles was, he was also an eminently fair sportsman. “Obviously he had a good working relationship with Jody [Scheckter], who I enjoyed working with as well. I think Gilles was lucky to go to Ferrari with the other driver being someone like Scheckter. On a couple of occasions Gilles actually tried to help Jody win races or points to win the championship.
“And of course who can forget that 1979 French Grand Prix when Gilles and René Arnoux had their fantastic wheel-to-wheel race, both of them racing as hard as humanly possible but both leaving each other room? They weren’t trying to be dangerous in any way. They were just being full-blown racing drivers. It was wonderful to watch.”
It was indeed.
Filed under: Blogs, Formula 1, Other reports, You Were There
He’s been there and seen it all, but GK’s finger is still very much on the pulse of modern US racing. After over 30 years as the American editor of Autosport, he remains one of the most outspoken and authoritative voices on the US scene. Gordon is now Motor Sport’s US editor and monthly columnist, shedding light on everything that is happening on the other side of the Atlantic. 
Paal Hanson:
May 6th, 2010 9:14pm
Gilles was out of this world! I still tremble inside when my mind takes me back to those horific TV pictures from Zolder. Still brings tears to my eyes remembering. He was the perfect racer!
1982 was a year when Formula 1 changed for ever for me, loosing both my favorite driver and my favorite team owner.
Rich Ambroson:
May 7th, 2010 5:04pm
Gilles raced before my time, but his exploits are timeless. Reading about him and seeing some of the footage of his incredible feats inspired me to go to the Villeneuve museum in Berthierville after attending the Canadian GP in 1994.
As much as his awesome talent on the track, it was his ultimate fairness and honesty that won me over as an ardent fan. Great racing drivers such as Keke Rosberg and Alain Prost have nothing but fine things to say about the man. And the editor of this fine publication, Nigel Roebuck, has provided me with a wonderful education about one of the all time great Grand Prix drivers.
Forever Gilles.
DS:
May 7th, 2010 9:19pm
ah Gordon – a wee tear wells – what is so striking for me is the guy’s sense of fairness and fair play and how that philosphy seems so out of kinder with today- sad but with people like Gilles you do wonder what they would have thought of the tactics and brutality of more modern drivers-
i had the pleasure of watching Gilles a few times, remembering vividly the win at Brands ala Race of Champions – that really was a forgotten race but he really drove like a champion that day- people seem to remember the wilder drives but seem to forget the clever drives [Spain 1981 and Monaco 1980 ?] for instance – i also had the frustration of trying to see him race at Zandvoort and Silverstone and crashed out of both- although not his fault- one of the tragedies of this sport of ours is the loss of people like Gilles who could drive like a champion and act like one as well
rest in peace
Blair Knudson:
May 8th, 2010 12:28am
I have only seen footage, but a man i know in Germany was there at the French gp, said was the BEST RACE he ever saw and has seen plenty, he said the crowd was roughing for Rene, then it just changed “Quit” and Gilles had no enemy the crowd was behnd him 100%%%, just unbelievable he said how 1 man won over an entire GP crowd, he just kept saying “the crowheartd jhust kept roaring” what a racer and charismatic none EVER like him. He converted me from sprints to F-1 like jimmy clark did42 years previouslly, forever in my HEART. bk
Paul Chenard:
May 8th, 2010 4:44pm
It a sad day remembered today, but it also allows us to fondly look back the man, the father, the racer who took our breath away.
Thanks for the story.
Gilles pour toujours!
Michael S:
May 8th, 2010 6:17pm
No disrespct to Giles, but I never got the love affair that Nigel and most of the Motorsport crew has for Giles… I think it is the James Dean theory of dying young keeps you at the top, and never having to fullfil promise allows athers to imagine their own script to your life. Brando and Dean were both young, handsome stars, Dean dies young and is forever a 23 years old star, Brando lives to 80, gets fat and is made fun of all the time in by impersonators.
DS:
May 9th, 2010 9:38am
Michael we are entitled to our opinions – however the reasons i feel so many of us revere Gilles isn’t neccessarily those who die young thing but was his inherent sense of fair play – so sadly lacking subsequently – one of the nicest stories i heard was Gilles asking the reporters to go easy on Didier when Didier was having a bad time of it only to be betrayed for it-
as i mentioned before Gilles doesn’t actually feature in my personal top-ten drivers of all time- but he does as a person – and the fact i enjoyed his off road antics, the whole set-up really-
as for Brando and Dean- sorry both were ‘method’ actors and neither worthy of comparison -
António Posser:
May 9th, 2010 9:32pm
Gilles one day said something like this:
“I never believe that I can hurt myself seriously. If I believe that this can happen to me how can I do this job? If I am losing eight tenths of a second or anything similar because my thoughts are in a possible accident then i´m not doing a proper job and if not, then I am not a pilot. Some pilots in F1 … well, for me, they are not real pilots, they just drive competition cars and are doing only half of the work. And in this case I wonder why they do it”
For everybody who saw him driving they know he was exactly like this.
For me the good thing about Gilles was that each time i was watching him racing everything was possible. There was no limits, there was no routine, is “honesty” inside a F1 was …. a dream.
Sallut Gilles
Gary Spaven:
May 10th, 2010 11:59am
Gilles was a towering talent even in an era of really great drivers and tough competition.
I saw him on several occasions and vividly remember sitting in a near empty grandstand at Silverstone just on the exit of the old Woodcote chicane during morning practice at the 1981 Grand Prix. The first turbo Ferrari displayed what can only be described as evil handling characteristics. Every lap the thing snapped sideways in the middle of the chicane but Gilles not only caught the slide but refused to lift his foot in his quest for a lap time. This went on for over an hour. It was a display of talent from the stratosphere.
Every few years I read Nigel Roebuck’s tribute to Gilles in the 1982 AutoCourse annual and am moved almost to tears. It is still impossible to accept that Gilles is no longer with us.
Conrad:
May 10th, 2010 1:00pm
Michael S, I have to agree witn you. Gilles was a huge talent, a real racer, but those that die young leave a void that needs to be filled, especially when they are as charasmatic as Gilles. Who knows what he might have acheived, and of course we will never know and that in many ways keeps his memory burning bright.
Dave Cubbedge:
May 11th, 2010 4:02pm
Forza Gilles!
MS:
May 11th, 2010 5:14pm
Gilles was a legend long before his death.
A.S.Gilbert:
May 11th, 2010 10:11pm
I was working that day, and informed of an insistant caller.
When I picked up, a voice I knew as another enthusiast asked” What is the worst news, I could possibly give you?”
I knew exactly that second, and it was affirmed.
He had been called from Zolder, a race now meaningless, a place repugnant.
Sad day, grinding, emptying and one we all feared possible. Racing was very risky then.
I remember having a thought for Enzo Ferrari, who regarded Gilles paternally.
Gilles was known in Canada, but few understood the gravity of his moment.
We haven’t seen his like again, nor will we.
Peter Coffman:
May 12th, 2010 12:51pm
Gilles is not revered because of what he MIGHT have done had he lived. he is revered because of what he DID do while alive.
He was stunningly, freakishly quick. His car control in treacherous circumstances beggared belief. Much of the time he drove complete dogs, but he never for one millisecond gave anything less than his best, and so often dragged those dogs into places they had no right to be (see Monaco and Spain 1981, for example). He was the epitome of the warrior on the track, but never underhanded and always scrupulously fair. His driving expressed not just how to go fast, but the inherent joy and thrill of doing something with such virtuosity.
He was one of those rare drivers who could remind us why we love this sport.
Thanks, GK, for the article.
Dave Cubbedge:
May 12th, 2010 2:25pm
….and he was a down to earth type of guy, very approachable at the tracks by fans, the toughest of fighters in the car but always very fair. I’ll never forget his race at the Glen in ‘79 – from fourth on the grid he just powered away on a greasy track in changing conditions. of course previewed on the friday practice when in the wet he was eleven seconds quicker than the next guy, who I believe was his team mate Jody Scheckter.
there will never be another one like him.
Richard Bleksley:
May 12th, 2010 7:57pm
I doubt if Gilles Villeneuve would have lasted long in the money-grubbing international media business that calls itself Formula 1 these days. Even in his own time he was a bit of an anachronism: a driver who drove from the heart, with passion and with total commitment, never giving less than 100%. He could liven up any race merely by his presence in it, something I cannot say of any driver since. His exploits had me on the edge of my seat, time and time again.
And with all this, he was just as strongly dedicated to honour and fair play – concepts utterly foreign to today’s “sport.”
He was my last sporting hero, and his death was the beginning of my disenchantment with Formula 1, which is now complete – had you noticed?
Salut Gilles.
Brett Hart:
June 1st, 2010 2:08am
I think one of the most enchanting things I read about Gilles was that had Enzo told Gilles he could have the honour of driving for Ferrari, but with no retainer, apart from travel expenses, Villeneuve would still have driven Ferrari’s with the same passion & glee as he did, & done it happily.
Which has me thinking constantly, how many of the ’stars’ from the past 30 years would (have) drive(n) F1 for ‘nicks’?
Touche, Richard Bleksley.
Nine-tenths:
June 19th, 2010 3:25pm
I had the good fortune to see Gilles Villeneuve race Formula Atlantic during his banner year of 1976. He simply drove away from everyone else, including talented drivers like Bobby Rahal. If only he had been better able to keep his emotions in check, he may have become a multiple world champion. didier pironi deserves only the utter contempt of all who love racing.
Charles Carling:
July 26th, 2010 3:23pm
My brother and I witnessed his tragic accident. We saw the Ferrari clip Mass’ car and appear to climb up through the trees into the sky, and somehow we knew that he would not come back.