Gilles Villeneuve

Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve (January 18, 1950 – May 8, 1982) was a Canadian racing driver who spent six years in Formula One racing for Scuderia Ferrari, winning six Grands Prix and earning widespread acclaim for his performances.

An enthusiast of cars and fast driving from an early age, Villeneuve started his professional career in snowmobile racing in his native province of Quebec.

Villeneuve was born January 18, 1950, to piano-tuner Seville Villeneuve (1926–1987) and his wife Georgette (née Coupal; 1925–2008) at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in the province of Quebec, Canada and grew up in Berthierville.

Villeneuve often claimed to have been born in 1952.

By the time he made his debut in Formula One, he was already 27 years old and subtracted two years from his age to avoid being considered too old to find success at the highest level of motorsport.

His younger brother Jacques also had a successful racing career in Formula Atlantic, Can-Am and CART.

Villeneuve started competitive driving in local drag-racing events, entering his road car, a modified 1967 Ford Mustang.

He soon became bored by this and entered the Jim Russell Racing School at Circuit Mont-Tremblant to gain a racing licence.

He then had a very successful season in Quebec regional Formula Ford, running his own two-year-old car and winning seven of the ten races he entered.

The next year he progressed to Formula Atlantic, where he would compete for four seasons, running his own car again for one of those seasons.

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 Formula One career.

At the time of his death Gilles was reportedly considering divorce from Joann: he had long been having an extramarital affair with a Torontonian woman.

He could demand appearance money as well as race money, especially after winning the 1974 World Championship Snowmobile Derby.

His second season in Formula Atlantic was part-sponsored by his snowmobile manufacturer, Skiroule.

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."

He won his first Atlantic race in 1975 at Gimli Motorsport Park in heavy rain.

He moved into single seaters, winning the US and Canadian Formula Atlantic championships in 1976, before being offered a drive in Formula One with the McLaren team at the 1977 British Grand Prix.

In 1976, teamed with Chris Harrison's Ecurie Canada and factory March race engineer Ray Wardell, he dominated the season by winning all but one of the races and taking the US and Canadian titles.

After Villeneuve impressed James Hunt by beating him and several other Grand Prix stars in a non-championship Formula Atlantic race at Trois-Rivières in 1976, Hunt's McLaren team offered Villeneuve a Formula One deal for up to five races in a third car during the 1977 season.

He won the Canadian championship again in 1977.

Money was an issue in Villeneuve's 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 in fact came from snowmobile racing, where he was extremely successful.

Villeneuve made his debut at the 1977 British Grand Prix, where he qualified 9th in McLaren's old M23, separating the regular drivers Hunt and Jochen Mass who were driving newer M26s.

Rumours circulated that Villeneuve was one of several drivers in whom Ferrari's team was interested, and in August 1977 he flew to Italy to meet Enzo Ferrari, who was immediately reminded of Tazio Nuvolari, the pre-war European champion.

"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."

Ferrari was satisfied with Villeneuve's promise after a session at Ferrari's Fiorano test track, despite the Canadian making many mistakes and setting relatively slow times, and Villeneuve signed to drive for Ferrari in the last two races of 1977, as well as the full 1978 season.

He was taken on by reigning world champions Ferrari for the end of the season and drove for the Italian team from 1978 until his death in 1982.

His explanation was that Villeneuve "was looking as though he might be a bit expensive" and that Patrick Tambay, the team's eventual choice for 1978, was showing similar promise.

Villeneuve was left with no solid options for 1978, although Canadian Walter Wolf, for whom Villeneuve had driven in Can-Am racing, considered giving him a drive at Wolf Racing.

Villeneuve won six Grand Prix races in a short career at the highest level, and claimed second, his highest finish, in the 1979 Formula One World Championship; four points behind teammate Jody Scheckter.

Villeneuve died in a 140 mph crash resulting from a collision with the March car driven by Jochen Mass during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder.

The accident came less than two weeks after an intense argument with his teammate Didier Pironi over Pironi's move to pass Villeneuve at the preceding.

At the time of his death, Villeneuve was extremely popular with fans and has since become an iconic figure in the history of the sport.

Gilles' son, also named Jacques, won the Indianapolis 500 and CART championships in 1995 and became Formula One World Champion in 1997.

His son, Jacques Villeneuve, became Formula One World Champion in 1997, to date the only Canadian to win the Formula One World Championship.

In the race he set fifth fastest lap and finished 11th after being delayed for two laps by a faulty temperature gauge.

The British press coverage of Villeneuve's performance was generally complimentary, including John Blunsden's comment in The Times that "Anyone seeking a future World Champion need look no further than this quietly assured young man."

Despite this, shortly after the British race McLaren's experienced team manager Teddy Mayer decided not to continue with Villeneuve for the following year.