A debut not for the Ferrari team with which he became so closely associated, but for McLaren. The Lotuses of Gunnar Nilsson and Mario Andretti were fifth and sixth, and then – incredibly – came Gilles. When he was killed during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian GP, the sport lost one of the most popular drivers it has ever seen. “And that was the joy of him. We have noticed that you are using the English version of our web site. He was just confident.”World Champion Hunt took pole, but he made a bad start and was passed by John Watson, Niki Lauda and Jody Scheckter. We said, ‘How was that?’ he'd say, ‘Great, don't change the car, I'll just go out again and have another go, I'm going to learn some more.’ And off he'd go. And when the 1982 car proved to be very competitive, his faith seemed to be repaid, and he had a genuine shot at the World Championship. At one stage a deal seemed to have been done, but when it came to discussing the details, things seem to stall. By the end of the season, however, he celebrated his first F1™ victory with a superb success in the Canadian GP at Montreal.In 1979 Gilles was paired with Jody Scheckter and, armed with the superb Ferrari 312T4, added victories at Kyalami, Long Beach and Watkins Glen to his tally. We checked that the car still had water in and wasn't too hot, and sent him out again.”When he finally selected first and blasted out of the pits, Gilles had lost two laps, and was down in 21st place.
We have noticed that you are using the English version of our web site. He was given an ex-Hunt M23, rather than the latest M26, and the race number 40.“In those days we were a team who never pandered to our drivers,” says Caldwell. Sadly the story was to end in qualifying at Zolder – when in a twist of fate he ran into the back of the March of his former McLaren team-mate Mass and was killed instantly.The Formula 1 world may have gained a new driver on July 16 1977, but it lost a hero on May 8 1982.Part One: Getting to know one of McLaren's original employeesThe infamous Turn 14 wall has played its part over 50 years of Canadian GP classics
And they said, ‘You should have seen your boy spin at Becketts,’ ‘You should have seen him spin at Stowe,’ ‘You should have seen him spin...’“It became obvious that he'd spun at every corner on the race track! Without the delay he would easily have been a sensational fourth. He was replacing Chris Amon – a great friend of Bruce McLaren of course – who had stepped down to run the team. Gilles Villeneuve was an F1 sporting personality who became a legend in his own lifetime - driving for McLaren in 1977 This site uses cookies. He moved into single seaters, winning the US and Canadian Formula Atlantic championships in 1976, before being offered a drive in So I asked him about it. The first outing was to be in the British GP.“He loved cars and he loved talking about cars,” says Caldwell. He began racing snowmobiles in his native Quebec at the age of eight, displaying from the outset an uninhibited flair which was to become the hallmark of his tragically brief motor racing career.Gilles rocketed to international prominence when he won the Formula Atlantic race through the streets of Trois Rivieres on the banks of the St Lawrence River in 1976.
Visit our cookie policy to find out more about our use of cookies and how to opt out. However, there was one event where there could be no questions. In the process he beat Alan Jones and McLaren star James Hunt into second and third places. “We thought he was the find of the year. Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve, known as Gilles Villeneuve, was a Canadian racing driver, who spent six years in Grand Prix motor racing with Ferrari, winning six races and widespread acclaim for his performances. Gilles was pretending to be only 24, but was actually already 26.Contact was duly made, and later that year Gilles turned up at both the Canadian and US GPs to talk to team boss Teddy Mayer.
He came to the factory and got fitted into the car and was told I was the team manager.
He'd come in and say everything was fine, no trouble with the brakes or anything.
Mayer told him that the team would not be taking up its option on him for 1978, and that he could look for work elsewhere.Mayer did indeed plan to replace Mass, but he opted for another newcomer, Patrick Tambay.
“Drivers just turned up and drove the cars.
In his first F1 start he’d passed both Hans Stuck and Vittorio Brambilla. He said, ‘I'm just finding out how fast I can go round the corners. A deal was signed, and Villeneuve was promised some testing and a few races in 1977. Bizarrely they were conducted in part in the pit lane in Montreal in September, where Dennis put a figure of 2.5 – meaning a salary of $2.5m – on the signal board.Gilles strolled across and changed it to 3.5. Looking back to Gilles Villeneuve's F1 debut at Silverstone 40 years ago .
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