In 1982, at the Belgian GP, Sid Watkins, F1 neurosurgeon, was the first to reach the scene of Gilles Villeneuve's accident, performing emergency procedures. «There were parts of his car everywhere, he was still breathing and moved his pupils. I placed a tube into his windpipe for ventilation with his heart in normal condition.” Gilles was airlifted by helicopter to University St Raphael Hospital in Leuven, and Watkins spoke to Villeneuve's wife Joann who was in her home in Monaco when Jody Scheckter informed her of the news. Joann flew to Belgium along with Scheckter's wife Pam to speak with Watkins. Although the driver had effectively been killed on impact, Watkins and the hospital medical team kept Villeneuve alive on a respirator until his wife arrived and the doctors consulted specialists worldwide. “At Leuven hospital we realized that the fracture of the neck was fatal. I brought in the wife, I explained the situation to her, then,” Watkins reported, “we switched him off.” He died at 21:12.
Really fast over one lap, the champion of the heart and impossible overtaking. Loyalty and authenticity from another time. Not a man for world titles but for individual feats, that are recalled today maybe more than the victories of a whole championship. Villeneuve made the impossible happen. He seemed invincible, immune to accidents. His body remained intact on the outside even after the fatal flight, the last feat of Gilles. Sometimes you die as you lived and this has never been more real than with him.
Gilles Henri Villeneuve, a Canadian racing driver born in 1950, started his racing career early in snowmobile racing in his native province of Quebec. An enthusiast of cars and fast driving from an early age, he moved into single seaters, winning the US and Canadian Formula Atlantic championships in 1976, before being offered a drive in F1 with the McLaren team at the 1977 British GP.
Gilles Villeneuve tests a radical evolution of the Ferrari 312 T3.
A year later he was asked to join the Ferrari team for the end of the season and, from 1978 to his death in 1982, drove for the Italian team. As he had later remarked: "if someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula One, my third to drive for Ferrari ..." His races promised a bright career, and he quickly became a favourite among Formula One fans. Gilles Villeneuve, a winner of only 6 Grand Prix, and without a single championship title to his name in his short career. The horrific accident that took his life has left a void in all of our hearts. His death was untimely, but his legacy lives on forever. His son Jacques became F1 world champion in 1997.
Villeneuve was born in Richelieu, a small town just outside Montreal, in the largely French-speaking province of Quebec in Canada and grew up in Berthierville. In 1970, he married Joann Barthe, with whom he had two children, Jacques and Mélanie.
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 F1 career. He often claimed to have been born in 1952. By the time he got his break in F1, 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 started competitive driving in local drag-racing events, entering his road car, a modified 1967 Ford Mustang.
Money was very tight in his early career. He was a professional racing driver from his late teens, with no other income. In the first few years the bulk of his income actually came from snowmobile racing, where he was extremely successful. He credited some of his success to his snowmobiling days: "every winter, you would reckon on three or four big spills — and I'm talking about being thrown on to the ice at 100 miles per hour. Those things used to slide a lot, which taught me a great deal about control. And the visibility was terrible! Unless you were leading, you could see nothing, with all the snow blowing about. Good for the reactions — and it stopped me having any worries about racing in the rain."
After Villeneuve impressed James Hunt by beating him and several other GP stars in a non-championship Formula Atlantic race at Trois-Rivières in 1976, McLaren team offered the Canadian a F1 deal for up to five races in a third car during the 1977 season. Villeneuve made his debut at the British GP and John Blunsden commented in The Times that: "anyone seeking a future World Champion need look no further than this quietly assured young man."
Gilles Villeneuve with Enzo Ferrari.
In August 1977 he flew to Italy to meet Enzo Ferrari, who was immediately reminded of the pre-war European champion Tazio Nuvolari: "when they presented me with this 'piccolo Canadese' (little Canadian), this minuscule bundle of nerves, I immediately recognised in him the physique of Nuvolari and said to myself, let's give him a try."
Gilles Villeneuve at the Japanese GP in 1977.
In the last race of the 1977 season, the Japanese GP at the Fuji Speedway, Gilles retired on lap five when he tried to outbrake the Tyrrell P34 of Ronnie Peterson. The pair banged wheels causing Villeneuve's Ferrari to become airborne. It landed on a group of spectators watching the race from a prohibited area, killing one spectator and a race marshal and injuring ten people.
Gilles Villeneuve in 1978.
At the 1978 season-ending Canadian GP in Montreal Villeneuve scored his first GP.
Gilles was joined by Jody Scheckter in 1979 and won three races during the year and even briefly led the championship after winning back to back races in USA and South Africa.
However, the season is mostly remembered for Villeneuve's wheel-banging duel with René Arnoux in the last laps of the 1979 French GP. Villeneuve commented afterwards, "I tell you, that was really fun! I thought for sure we were going to get on our heads, you know, because when you start interlocking wheels it's very easy for one car to climb over another." At the Dutch GP a slow puncture collapsed Villeneuve's left rear tyre and put him off the track. He returned to the circuit and limped back to the pits on three wheels, losing the damaged wheel on the way. On his return to the pits Villeneuve insisted that the team replace the missing wheel, and had to be persuaded that the car was beyond repair. Villeneuve might have won the world title by ignoring team orders to beat Scheckter at the Italian GP, but chose to finish behind him. During the extremely wet Friday practice session for the season-ending US GP, Villeneuve set a time variously reported to be either 9 or 11 seconds faster than any other driver. His teammate Jody Scheckter, who was second fastest, recalled that "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!" The 1980 season was a complete disaster for Ferrari and Villeneuve 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.
Gilles Villeneuve, biplane Ferrari, at the 1982 United States Grand Prix in Long Beach.
In 1981, Ferrari introduced their first turbo engined F1 car, the 126C, which produced tremendous power but was let down by its poor handling.
Gilles Villeneuve with his 650hp Ferrari 126C.
Villeneuve was partnered 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." Villeneuve won two races during the season. At the Spanish GP the Canadian kept five quicker cars behind him for most of the race using the superior straight-line speed of his car. Harvey Postlethwaite, who was hired by Ferrari to design the follow-on and much more successful 126C2, 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." At the 1981 Canadian GP 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. At the 1982 San Marino GP, in order to conserve fuel and ensure the cars finished the Ferrari team ordered both drivers to slow down. Villeneuve believed that the order also meant that the drivers were to maintain position but Pironi passed Villeneuve. A few laps later Villeneuve re-passed Pironi and slowed down again, believing that Pironi was simply trying to entertain the Italian crowd. On the last lap Pironi passed and aggressively chopped across the front of Gilles in Villeneuve corner and took the win. Villeneuve was irate as he believed that Pironi had disobeyed the order to hold position. Meanwhile, Pironi claimed that he had done nothing wrong as the team had only ordered the cars to slow down, not maintain position. Villeneuve stated after the race "I think it is well known that if I want someone to stay behind me and I am faster, then he stays behind me." Feeling betrayed and angry Villeneuve vowed never to speak to Pironi again. In 2007, former Marlboro (company which sponsored Pironi while he was at Ferrari) marketer John Hogan said: "neither of them would ever have agreed to what effectively was throwing a race. I think Gilles was stunned somebody had out-driven him and that it just caught him so much by surprise." A comparison of the lap times of the two drivers showed that Villeneuve lapped far slower when he was in the lead, suggesting that he had indeed been trying to save fuel.
Gilles Villeneuve in his Ferrari at Zolder in 1982.
On May 8, 1982, Villeneuve died after an accident during the final qualifying session at Zolder. At the time of the crash, Pironi had set a time 0.1s faster than the Canadian for sixth place. Gilles was using his final set of qualifying tyres. Ferrari race engineer Mauro Forghieri said that Villeneuve, 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 Butte, the left-handed bend before the Terlamenbocht double right-hand section. 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 Mass' car and was launched into the air at a speed estimated at 200–225 km/h. It was airborne for more than 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. John Watson and Derek Warwick pulled Gilles, his face blue, from the fence.
At the funeral in Berthierville Jody Scheckter delivered a simple eulogy: "I will miss Gilles for two reasons. First, he was the most genuine man I have ever known. Second, he was the fastest driver in the history of motor racing. But he has not gone. The memory of what he has done, what he achieved, will always be there." At the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari a corner was named after him and a Canadian flag is painted on the third slot on the starting grid, from which he started his last race. There is also a bronze bust of him at the entrance to the Ferrari test track at Fiorano. At Zolder the corner where Villeneuve died has been turned into a chicane and named after him. The track on Notre Dame Island, Montreal, host to the F1 Canadian GP, was named Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in his honour. In Berthierville a museum was opened in 1992 and a lifelike statue stands in a nearby park which was also named in his honour. The number 27, the number of his Ferrari in 1981 and 1982, is still closely associated with him by fans.
Gilles Villeneuve pushes the Ferrari to its limits.
Niki Lauda said of him: "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".
You left us in a day of May where you wanted to show that you were the best. It was useless Gilles, we already knew it.
Gilles Villeneuve: a few stories from his business manager, Gaston Parent
In 2002, as I was working on a TV special on Ferrari, I probably conducted the last interview with Gaston Parent, Gilles Villeneuve's manager. The former businessman died less than 12 months after that interview.
In 1976, Gaston Parent was a prosperous and acute businessman in the fields of marketing and advertising. He got to know Gilles Villeneuve as the young driver needed money to race in Formula Atlantic.
At the time, Villeneuve badly needed $5,000 to compete in a Formula Atlantic race in Halifax to secure the Canadian title. Parent was impressed by the young charger. He decided to pay the bill.
Gaston Parent. Photo: Musée Gilles Villeneuve.
Villeneuve raced in Halifax, won the race and the title. Weeks later, Parent attended the Trois-Rivieres Atlantic race where he beat F1 World Champion James Hunt who was driving an identical car.
Early 1977, Teddy Mayer of the McLaren F1 team proposed a four-race contract to Villeneuve. “I was too busy to go in England. I told Robert St-Onge (his right-hand man) that he would go with Villeneuve to sign the contract,” Gaston Parent told us. And the two later returned to Canada with a McLaren contract in pocket.
Villeneuve raced a year-old McLaren in the British Grand Prix in Silverstone and made a strong impression.
A few weeks later, Mayer faced a dilemma. He had signed Frenchman Patrick Tambay as a teammate to James Hunt for 1978 and he needed to get rid of Villeneuve. “Negotiations began between Teddy Mayer and Ferrari. Mayer did not want Gilles to go to Wolf – the new Canadian team. He wanted him to go to Ferrari,” Parent explained.
“One day, Gilles called me. He was overly excited. He said that Ferrari had called him and offered him a contract. We needed to go in Italy. In fact, Niki Lauda had decided to quit Ferrari and the Italian team needed a replacement driver. I did not want to go in Italy. But my friend Walter Wolf - who was the owner of the new Wolf Formula 1 team – convinced me to go.”
Villeneuve was ecstatic about the idea of meeting Mr. Enzo Ferrari in person. “For me, it was totally different,” Parent told us. “I was a Canadian businessman who was going to Italy to meet an Italian businessman. Period.”
Both arrived in Milan. “A character named Mortara, close to Mr. Ferrari, drove us to Modena. We came to visit Mr. Ferrari. A barrier opened and we entered the field. We got out of the car and entered his office. It was a large room with shelves full of trophies. In the center, there was only a very ordinary table and five chairs. An electric light bulb hung over the table. It looked like we were in an old Italian movie. Enzo Ferrari then entered with his translator and accountant. We started to talk. Gilles was so obsessed with the idea of driving for Ferrari that he would have said yes to everything. I had to calm him down several times!"
During the flight between Montreal and Milan, Villeneuve had told Parent that he wanted permission to continue doing risky activities like skiing, driving his 4x4, boating and the like.
“I told Mr. Ferrari that Gilles wanted to be the owner of his body. You have to believe that I used unusual words! Because Ferrari looked at me and asked me if I was a lawyer. I told him no. Then he asked Gilles if he was a lawyer. No. Ferrari asked me to repeat my question, which I did using the same words. And he accepted. In fact, Ferrari understood, by mistake, that Gilles wanted to be the owner of his body, in fact of his racing suit! That Gilles wanted to negotiate his own personal contracts. This is not what we had in mind, but that we got by mistake! Parent exclaimed.
Interesting fact: no contract was signed. “Enzo Ferrari showed us a document which was a letter of intent which had 19 points and entitled 'by verbal agreement'. Ferrari explained to us that no one signed a contract in Italy because the tax authorities demanded that the same amount that was mentioned in the contract be put as a guarantee. This meant that, if Ferrari hired Villeneuve for a million dollars, Ferrari had to hand over another million to the tax authorities. And, of course, Ferrari would never see that amount again. But, despite the explanations, I wanted to have a contract. Enzo Ferrari then looked me in the eye and said 'when I give my word, there is no problem. We don't need a contract ...' So we left the office with this letter of intent,' said Gaston Parent.
Fiorano track. Photo by Ferrari.
The latter continues his story. “The next day, Gilles tested on the Fiorano circuit. Mauro Forghieri, the technical director, was not convinced of Gilles' development skills. On the third flying lap, Gilles lost control of the car and spun through the long grass. He quickly returned to the track and finished his lap. After about an hour of testing, he had broken the track record. Quietly, I heard Enzo Ferrari and his business partners talking to each other and saying 'il campione del mondo ... '.
Gilles Villeneuve during his first test in the Ferrari 312 T2 at Fiorano. Photo by Ferrari.
The following day, Gilles Villeneuve and Gaston Parent were able to measure the importance of the new status of the Quebecer. The two friends had to take the plane back to Montreal. “But Alitalia had been under the strike of its staff for a few days. It was total chaos at Milan airport. At the counter, we are told that there are no more seats on the next flight to Montreal. I asked to see the director of operations and we started to chat. Suddenly, he saw Gilles holding his new molded racing seat in his hand. He cried out 'Villeneuve'! He couldn't believe he had the new Ferrari driver in front of him! Everything was instantly arranged and we were able to have three seats in business class: one for Gilles, one for me and another one for Gilles' seat!" Parent exclaimed.
In Maranello, home of Ferrari, Gilles was treated like a king. “In great secrecy, Gilles attended Italian lessons at Berlitz. One day he arrived at Ferrari and spoke Italian with his mechanics and engineers. They were extremely impressed. When he was in Italy, Gilles stayed at the Fini hotel in Modena. He was the big star. He could do anything on the road: U-turns, drive in the wrong direction and on the sidewalks, everything! It was crazy! One day, he was stopped by the police for speeding. He searched in his bag and brought out six photos of him. He signed them and gave them to the police officer. He got away with it!” Gaston Parent concluded on the phenomenon Gilles Villeneuve.
Interview exclusive: ‘I was a proper fanboy’ – Jeremy Clarkson on his racing hero Gilles Villeneuve. Senior Editor Greg Stuart. 08 May 2022.
Every F1 fan has their favourite driver growing up. Sir Jackie Stewart was a Juan Manuel Fangio fanatic. Sir Lewis Hamilton revered Ayrton Senna. But for Jeremy Clarkson, star of shows including 'Top Gear', 'The Grand Tour' and, latterly, Amazon Prime’s 'Clarkson’s Farm', there was only ever one F1 driver who was worth a damn: Gilles Villeneuve. Forty years on from the Canadian’s tragic death at Zolder on May 8, 1982, Clarkson opens up to F1.com Senior Editor Greg Stuart about the roots of his deep-seated adulation for one of F1’s most unique drivers.
On paper, it seems strange that Gilles Villeneuve could hold the iconic status of a Fangio or a Senna (or a Stewart or a Hamilton for that matter). The key stats run as follows: pole positions – two. Race wins – six. Podiums – 13. Championships – zero. Hamilton trumped every one of those stats… in 2020 alone.
Yet for Clarkson, stats pale into insignificance compared to the leonine way Villeneuve comported himself on track.
“I think there were two events that cemented him in my adulation really,” Clarkson tells me, taking a break from a morning’s scriptwriting to chat racing heroes. “The first was – well, I know it was the [1981] British Grand Prix because I was there… At Woodcote, there was the most enormous crash. I can't remember who caused it [but] these were the days when they used catch-fencing. And it was complete carnage, cars everywhere, people, marshals.
“But when it all sort of settled down, you could plainly hear that one engine was still running and it was Gilles’. He set off back onto the track with really only half a car and most of the catch fencing wrapped around what was left of it. And I thought, ‘There's a man so determined to win this race, he's prepared to go, “no, no, I'm alright.”’
“He was sort of like the knight in Monty Python with no arms and legs. He's still going to carry on racing, even though he didn't really have a car any more.
“And then of course, there was the '79 French Grand Prix in Dijon. He was racing for second place with Rene Arnoux. How many times did they hit each other on that last lap, five times? They took it in turns to be knocked off and then came charging back on again… It was absolutely fantastic racing and I just thought, 'Okay, he's my favourite racing driver.' I've never really seen anyone race like him since.”
Clarkson admits unashamedly that his fandom extended to having posters of Villeneuve racing his Ferrari (he also drove one race for McLaren on his F1 debut, at the 1977 British Grand Prix) on his wall – while adding that Villeneuve’s famous race number, 27, also holds a special place in his heart.
“It's still my lucky number,” he says. “I still always choose 27 whenever I've got the opportunity – because of Gilles Villeneuve. If I see the number 27 in any context, whether I'm betting on a horse or anything, if it's 27 I will always bet 27 – because of Gilles Villeneuve.
“I definitely had pictures of his racing car on the wall. I bought a Ferrari because of Gilles Villeneuve, the 355. I loved Ferraris because of Gilles Villeneuve… And [the 355] had to be red. And I damn nearly painted 27 on the side of it…”
Villeneuve’s detractors are quick to point to a reckless streak in the French-Canadian. While that Dijon fight with Arnoux has become part of F1 lore today, at the time, many condemned the antics of the two racers as dangerous (Mario Andretti a notable exception, the 1978 champ famously telling the press the pair were “just a couple of young lions clawing each other”).
Arnoux and Villeneuve's famous fight for P2 at the 1979 French Grand Prix entranced a 19-year-old Clarkson.
Elsewhere, stories of landing helicopters in pitch black, driving his Ferrari road car at warp speed on the roads from Maranello to Monaco and iconic instances of Villeneuve racing on track minus wheels, front wings and the like, form an unignorable part of his biography.
Gilles Villeneuve with his toys at Imola in 1981.
So, I ask Clarkson meekly, did he ever feel Villeneuve’s behaviour strayed into foolhardiness?
“Yes of course! I hope so!” he replies defiantly. “That's exactly what I want from a racing driver… When the race finishes, can you imagine someone saying to Gilles Villeneuve 'you managed your tyres very well Gilles.’ He wouldn't know what you were talking about. He doesn't want to manage his tyres very well; he wants to slither about and crash into Rene Arnoux and drive with half a car.”
And what of modern Formula 1? How does Clarkson think Villeneuve’s firebrand style of driving would have suited racing in 2022?
“Well modern Formula 1 has got good now that they've worked out how to be able to drive behind another car!” replies Clarkson. “The first two races [of 2022] were fantastic, weren't they. So he probably would have approved of that, I'm sure.
“But I'm sure he'd be, like me, saying that these cars have got to be stronger – you've got to be able to biff someone and not lose an endplate and then you're five seconds a lap down and you've got no chance of winning. They would drive around problems in those days rather than say 'well that's it, I've got a problem so I can't win so there's no point even trying.' So I think that might be something that he'd find strange – if a tiny little piece of car falls off, then that's it, you're out of the running.”
Villeneuve's anger against his team mate was evident at Imola, one race before his fatal crash.
The circumstances of Villeneuve’s death, during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix, are dark, to say the least. Incandescent with rage following what he saw as a betrayal of a gentleman’s agreement by Ferrari team mate Didier Pironi at the previous race at Imola, a still-simmering Villeneuve – not known for his conservative driving style – launched himself out of the pits aiming for a banzai lap of Zolder.
Approaching the March of Jochen Mass, a tragic piece of incommunicado between the two drivers saw the slow-moving Mass try to jink out of Villeneuve’s way just as Villeneuve darted in the same direction. Doing an estimated 140mph, Villeneuve’s Ferrari hit the back of the March with such violence that he was ripped from the cockpit of the 126C2 and thrown into the catch fencing. A fracture of the neck would ultimately mean there was no saving him.
Did Clarkson remember the details of that day?
“I know where I was,” Clarkson replies quietly, “well, I was watching television. I can remember Gilles dying. Gilles Villeneuve, Keith Moon, I remember all of them. I know where I was when Senna died: I was at a motor show. You remember those things for sure.”
Villeneuve's exuberant style was breathtaking.
There’s a poignant quote from legendary F1 journalist Alan Henry about Gilles Villeneuve, where he calls the French-Canadian “the last person who had the totally uninhibited joy of driving a racing car”. As our conversation nears its end, I put the quote to Clarkson and ask if he shares the view.
“I don't think he was the last,” he replies after a pause. “I think Kimi Raikkonen had a joy – not in the latter stages, but he was joyful. Ferrari always does tend to pick that sort of a driver; he was a perfect Ferrari driver. Nigel Mansell was too – perfect.
“So I don't necessarily think he was the last. But he was my idea of a proper, boy's own hero – like Chuck Yeager or Francis Chichester or [Ernest] Shackleton… I was a proper fanboy.”
Patrick Tambay in 1983. Photo by Getty Images / Mike Powell.
“Gilles is a myth that resists the passage of time.” Patrick Tambay. May 08, 2022 by The Canadian.
He is a man tired by illness who nevertheless agreed to answer our questions.
Patrick Tambay has been battling Parkinson’s disease for years.
If his speech is difficult today, his memory is intact.
“It’s when there are phone calls like yours that memories come flooding back immediately”, replies the 72-year-old man, happy that his friend is remembered.
«Gilles was a handsome madman! A good living. He liked nice cars, friends and especially beautiful women, but I shouldn’t tell you that», laughs the former pilot.
«On the track, he was total. His commitment was total. For his adversaries it was a heavy presence», he adds.
“Gilles was always in the fight, 100% in the fight. He never let go. A little hotheaded even. Besides, he would have had much better results if he had been a little more patient. But Gilles and patience did not mix. He also stated that he knew he was impetuous and abrupt at times. It was his way of being. If he had hesitated to attack a turn hard, he would not have been Gilles Villeneuve.”
After the tragedy at Zolder and the disappearance of his friend Gilles, the Écurie Ferrari offered the French driver the chance to take over Gilles’ car number 27. The memory of his victory in 1983 on the Imola circuit in Italy, a year after the death of his friend, is still very present.
«I remember that at the beginning it was a bit cumbersome to take over Gilles’ car, HIS car», emphasizes the former pilot.
Gilles Villeneuve, Ferrari 126CK, Grand Prix of Monaco, 31 May 1981. Photo by Paul-Henri Cahier / Getty Images.
«At the same time, I thought back to the accident. I thought the first laps were going to be difficult, but I immediately felt his presence», recalls Patrick Tambay. «There has always been this presence, Gilles was there with me. He was also in the crowd, which had unfurled banners asking me to avenge him by winning the race. I feel like he was driving with me.»
“But I can tell you one thing. It was while driving the car that I became aware of Gilles’ immense talent. I have never really been able to match its performance and yet it was the same car. It was Gilles who surpassed himself and who made the car surpass himself as well. I don’t know if you believe in paranormal phenomena, but I assure you that that day, it was not me who drove this car to bring it to victory.»
While still rummaging through his memory box, Patrick Tambay also remembers the friend who introduced him to Quebec.
“Oh yes, he made me discover Quebec», claims the Frenchman as if it were yesterday and he suddenly regained his youthful ardour.
«After the races, we were a small group of pilots and we went with him into the woods. We crossed the maple groves like crazy, to finally arrive in what you call the sugar shacks. Afterwards, we went back to fooling around in the woods», he adds with a smile that says a lot about past journeys.
The friendship between the two men will be so great that the French pilot will become the godfather of his son Jacques.
Before leaving, the septuagenarian apologized for his difficult speech due to illness, but he wanted to answer questions.
”For me, Gilles will remain a legend. Remembering him after 40 years is proof that he still has his place among the greats. Gilles is a myth that resists the passage of time.»
A time that even speed has not yet managed to catch up with.
Rediscovered: Gilles Villeneuve on life and racing — 'Maybe one day I have a big accident.'
By Andrew Marriott, May 8th 2022.
Long-lost footage of Gilles Villeneuve at the end of the 1981 F1 season reveals his fearless, fatalistic thinking seven months before his death.
Lost on the dusty tape racks of Motor Sport’s former assistant editor, Andrew Marriott, was a box that simply said: “TV Villeneuve doc”. For years it sat there, its existence entirely forgotten until a call came from the producers of a new documentary charting the friendship, turned tragic rivalry, of Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi.
In search of material that could be used in the film, Marriott uncovered 20 minutes of footage made for Canadian TV, including an interview with Villeneuve that he couldn’t remember carrying out. As his trusty tape machine replayed Villeneuve’s accented English, it offered new insight into Villeneuve’s view on racing and life, less than a year before his fatal crash at Zolder.
The 1981 season had not gone Gilles Villeneuve’s way. Despite brilliant wins in Spain – where he made the Ferrari very wide — and famously at Monaco, he was no longer in contention for the World Championship by September and the Italian Grand Prix.
But Villeneuve’s reputation wasn’t built on results and, as I said in the introduction to a 20-minute documentary that I made with him at Monza that year, “amongst the top names in racing Gilles has an unparalleled reputation as a man who will never give up even as his machinery falls apart around him.”
Villeneuve with Marriott in the 1981 interview.
Sitting in a couple of camping chairs next to his motor home, without a PR in sight, we discussed racing and life, revealing a driver who loved his racing. A man who was friendly, fearless and fatalistic. As a piece of lost history showing how Gilles was thinking just seven months before he died, it is magic.
My interview was just part of another hectic day for Gilles. The previous Sunday he had been competing in a special powerboat race for Formula 1 drivers, held on Lake Como in Monza which he won in spectacular style. On Monday he was back at home in Monaco. On Tuesday it was back to Italy for testing at Ferrari’s track in Fiorano, as the team continued to work on the troublesome turbocharged 126.
He spent Thursday flying in his helicopter to a business meeting in the Cote d’Azur and then arrived at Monza on Thursday evening where he would be staying – unlike all the other drivers who preferred hotels – in his motorhome by the paddock.
Was racing in his blood? “I guess so,” said Villeneuve. “I just like it for the sake of the racing, not for the money in it although I like it for that also. I still like racing even if I am in say 18th or 15th place but I think some other drivers don’t give everything when they are at the back of the pack. You have to like racing, it is not something you can do well if you don’t do it with your own heart. But I think everyone who is Formula 1 now likes it.
“At the beginning it just happened that it was possible that I could go snowmobile racing. Car racing was my first love but I could not afford it. The opportunity was there to go racing snowmobile and I won a few races and the ball started rolling and I got a little name with that. So I made some prize money with that so I could afford to buy a Formula Ford then on and on.”
Villeneuve scored a rare 1981 win in Jarama, against the odds.
From his Formula 1 race, in an outdated McLaren at Silverstone in 1977, Villeneuve had been hailed as a future world champion, but the 1981 title wasn’t to be. After those couple of early wins, the Ferrari was unreliable and barely competitive. “Of course you prefer when the car is competitive and you can battle it up front and even if you don’t win, if you have finished second or third you know you have had a good race,” said Villeneuve.
“But that hasn’t been the case after Spain. Actually in Spain the car wasn’t that fast. Due to a series of circumstances I was leading and I was able to keep it like that. I think it was one of my best races – it was very tough to do. But then I guess the car fell back to where it belonged; in Spain the car should have finished sixth or seventh. I am not saying I made it finish first but I had the opportunity of leading and then not fade off. Since then it has been very tough but here it has been improving quite a bit, we have done good testing two weeks ago working on the springs, dampers, bump rubbers and skirts and the car is a lot more drivable than it has been for a long time.”
I then turned to the dangers of racing, and remember I was talking to a man who was considered to have a devil-may-care attitude although he was on the GPDA (driver) Safety Committee. “We work very hard at improving the circuits and I can tell that the grand prix circuits are the safest in the world and the lesser tracks are a lot less safe than the ones we race on because we have improved those with catch fences, that kind of thing. Yes the tracks can always be made safer but it is not too bad now. Also the cars are being made safer, more strong and everything. From a personal point of view, I don’t think much of that although, of course, I don’t want to kill myself, but I guess it is part of the job and we accept it the way it is.
“I know that maybe I can have an accident tomorrow and hurt myself and maybe have to be in hospital for a couple of months but you can always come back from that, so that’s the way I see it. There are maybe a couple of times a year I can have a big accident but, of course, I don’t want to have one but maybe one day I have one.”
Villeneuve on his way to victory in the 1981 Monaco GP. Photo by Paul-Henri Cahier / Getty Images.
After this staggeringly honest answer our conversation turned to his rivals and I asked if he had anyone he treated as a friend “yes, I do have close friends, mainly the French drivers, I don’t know why. They are not special people above the other nationalities but it just happened like that. I would say Patrick Tambay, Rene Arnoux, Alain Prost and Pironi my team-mate [whose first name wasn’t mentioned]. We are good friends but on the track we are just rivals.”
The interview had begun by my asking him how his lifestyle had changed since joining Formula 1. “Here in Monza it is very different from Canada but living in Monaco is, I guess, the closest town to what you can find in North America,” said Villeneuve in his accented English. As a Quebecois his first language was French and a couple of times he said he was out of practice speaking in English. “Life has changed a bit but we try to make it as close to how we lived in Canada. I first found it a bit tough when I moved to Europe as I think I am a typical Canadian or American, I found it very tough at first because some parts of living in Europe are very, very different. But now, after four years, we are completely used to it and I like it.
Villeneuve leased his helicopter from Walter Wolf. Photo by Grand Prix Photo.
I asked about the financial rewards racing in F1 had brought him and what he did with his money “well, some people put it in the bank to have more, but I don’t put much in the bank, I just spend it (laughs) but the helicopter that I am flying is not mine, it belongs to Walter Wolf and I lease it off him – but always the things I get, I get them quite cheaply – so I get a good deal on it. A few months ago I bought an offshore powerboat but I did a kind of deal with the guy from Italy to do PR for him so that was a special price so although I spend a bit I always try to get a good deal. I don’t really spend much on clothes or even cars. But if I feel I want to buy something, if I can afford it, I buy it, which is pretty much like any Canadian, I guess.”
I knew Gilles had started a car collection, “it is not really one, I want to build a collection of some American cars and I have always been fond of Ford products back in Canada so perhaps I will create a collection on that make. Of course I have a Ferrari for the road but I don’t see any point in collecting them, it would be just be too expensive.
Villeneuve’s path to Formula 1 was brokered by James Hunt, who also contributed to the programme and was as eloquent as ever. He said: “some people say I discovered Gilles but I didn’t really, you didn’t have to be much of a brain surgeon to spot his talents when he was driving Formula Atlantic in Canada. I went over there and raced against him at Trois Rivieres and got thrashed. But for those in Europe he was already well known because he was cleaning everything up in Atlantic. The only thing I responsible for was getting him the McLaren drive. Even before I went to Canada, I said to them he was someone to watch. Then they signed him and unfortunately let him go and Ferrari got him.”
Asked about his strong qualities, Hunt replied: “well, it is probably easier to look for his weaknesses which aren’t very many now. The year he could have won the championship – 1979 – when Ferrari had a good car and all that reliability, he rather threw it away. He made a lot of mistakes that year always from easy — from winning — situations.
“Unfortunately since that time he hasn’t been put to the test because he hasn’t been in that situation because he hasn’t had a good enough car. So that was his weakness, he is a terrific competitor, he has an abundance of natural talent that is second to nobody in the business and he is a thinker off the track. His weakness is that he didn’t think well on the track at that time.
“I think by now if you put him in a winning car, he wouldn’t be making those old mistakes. Now he is much more experienced but you would still have to test it to see – it is up to Ferrari to provide him with the car. His two wins in Spain and Monte Carlo were both a fantastic effort of qualifying a bad car well by sheer blood and thunder and then wrestling it around the track and not making any mistakes. The Spanish GP was absolutely brilliant because the car deserved to be about tenth.”
Andrew Marriott’s 1981 interview will form part of the upcoming ‘Villeneuve Pironi’ documentary. The feature film from Noah Media and Sky Studios contrasts the intertwined lives of Ferrari friends then foes Villeneuve and Pironi with the aid of their family, Ferrari team members and rivals.
Videos
Comments
Authorize to comment