This morning at Fiorano, Scuderia Ferrari remembered Gilles Villenueuve, who was killed in an accident at Zolder in Belgium, 30 years ago today. As part of the anniversary, Gilles’s son Jacques, who won the World Championship in 1997 drove his father’s Ferrari 312 T4, in which Gilles won three races in 1979. Also taking part in the event were Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo, the Vice President Piero Ferrari, the Scuderia Ferrari drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa and Mauro Forghieri, who was Technical Director in Gilles’s day. Among the other guests were Gilles’s widow Joann and their daughter Melanie.
Piero is looking much more like the Old Man these days .,.
Quite right.
At first glance I thought it was Jean-Marie Balestre.
I see the resemblance, but I figure that would be a tad difficult…
Then it would have been Prost in the car…
Doesn’t he just ! He certainly wasn’t the milkmans.. !
He certainly is.
Thanks for remembering the most inspiring driver I ever saw.
Joe, thank you for writing this post in all its glorious brevity. All canadian race fans have always looked at Gille, and wondered what could have been. To see his son accomplish what Gille could not was of great national pride. His father will always be one of our fondest memories.
would’ve loved to have seen Jacques race (for at least one race) for Ferrari. what ever happened to that film regarding Gilles life (it was announced, I believe, in 2005)?
I wish Alonso got a ride in this legendary machine.
But it’s great that Ferrari has welcomed Jacques Villeneuve to drive though Jacques’ racing career has never crossed paths with Ferrari.
Well, not figuratively…
Thanks, Joe. Kudos to Ferrari for a poignant and appropriate tribute.
Je me souviens.
No, but their paths collided at the end of 1997 in Jerez!
The 312 T4 is also one of my all time favourite F1 cars. Look at its width – so much more aggressive looking than the slim cars and thin tyres we have these days. I wish F1 would return to wide track and full on ground effects.
Yes, very clean look
jeepers the last photo of jacques in the ferrari 312t4 looks like his dad gilles, what a canny resembalence….
it’s the first time I’ve seen the resemblance and it is spooky – since I never considered he looked like Gilles before now. Hats off to Ferrari for the tribute as others have said. Do you know if there’s any video of it?
having stopped being lazy its on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMCFLeGkh-U
That is, if anything, even more enjoyably with the sound up and eyes closed…
Wow, look at that, a proper racing car on a proper looking track (some might even say a proper driver at the wheel!). Don’t get me wrong, I love modern F1 but this pushes all the right buttons for me. Nice big pics as well, it must have been a very special atmosphere, with a 312 T4, a mr Ferrari and a mr Villeneuve all present and correct 30+ years later!
Many thanks for posting this wonderful tribute. Superb photos bring a tear to the eye. Not just ‘one of the greats’ – to his many fans throughout the world he will always be ‘the greatest’. RIP Gilles; thanks for the memories.
Thank you for the photographs. I was just a little boy, and I wonder if my dad distracted me from the news, at the time. I think he did distract me, because I remember him pointing out GV as someone to admire. My dad admired no-one, crikey was he a put down artist, but he was very sensitive towards a proper spirit. Not interested in any other kind. I guess I inherited the egotist gene, which is not really egotist just dismissive of anything less than a man can be. There are men who inspire others, make people sit down in awe. GV was such a man. Pity so few tapes are available of all this era. I think the lack of footage is a disservice, something humanly wrong with that, and the lack of it a condemnation of the Bernie era, all the petty corporate control.
You may find this footage online sometime,
now that the deal with TaTa is done…
My pal and I are scratching heads how much there really is to be found. We’re sure there’s an audience but getting crazy that we simply don’t have enough contacts to lay out hands on the footage. It’s wonderful how much we can play on the computers now to fiddle with the files /movies if we only had a Flimlight (Brit company, yay!) scanner or similar. Oh, and the original negatives, which might help! There is a peculiar art to scanning film, as well. I just think the thing is that archive celluloid always ends up in private basements, and you have do do so much legwork to find it. I wish we could turn that around, buy the kit and have the team and buy adverts in all the press saying “please send in, we won’t mess it up”. If anyone knows any different, please get in touch!
Oops, patrick, sorry – you see there is lots online, but how much is as good quality as the Senna movie? Not him, my mate I mean cooking next door, nor me would want to settle for YouTube “quality”. But my pal sure does think he could make a living at just sorting this out, and I believe him. My view is I think just about anyone with dedication and technical competence could do this. There is so much in so many sports hidden away, or accidentally discarded. I hope at least by next year to leave link here to all my dad’s intensive Squash Rackets writing. Okay, he wads known there, but has anybody ever approached my family out of interest? Think that’s a good thing, because it means it will go up for people to freely read, 40 years of it. Bits of my family tried to sell that privately, but rotten, so I shall be relieved when it sees the light of day.
Oh, I need a slap on the wrist for my typos, hope they are understandable. And if anyone does actually have vintage film footage, please shout out, we can definitely husband that through to a modern editing process, done top absolute top end, return the files and stock not messed around with and perfect. That’s just procedure. Someone else would have to out out how to edit and editorialise them. Me, I’d just love to have uncommented footage to wow too!
The resemblance is getting spooky…
Joe,
Gilles Villeneuve seems to hold a special place in F1 history, in the recent era its not hard to find many drivers with over 6 victories.(Vettel around 20 already) I get that he has probably the most famous 2nd place ever which alone eclipses many other successful F1 drivers in memory. This comment is not a critique of him rather a attempt to understand the “phenomena” of Gilles, his legend and what if anything differentiates him from current F1 drivers. Slightly before my time, unfortunately. Any thoughts?
P.S
Very classy of Ferrari to remember him in a dignified way with Piero, Luca , Fernando & Philipe present, it looked like Jacques was “pushing” that Car in a few corners and had some fun with it. Also very refreshing to see something like this that is not STRICTLY for profit and commercial purposes, nice to see Gilles personnel hosted by Ferrari. That team has the most “Soul” in F1 and thats a big part of what makes those red cars so special.
I think in Gilles’ case (as in several other notable cases) most people who were fortunate enough to be around to see him drive maintin that bald statistics are a woefully poor judge of his career and, more importantly, of who he was as a driver, a talent and a man.
I’d recommend the recent Motorosport magazine to get more of a flavour of why he is held in such esteem by most, but by no means all, who knew him.
Andrew – this is the kind of thing that differentiates him from other drivers:
A tear came to my eye watching that again, been so many years. Gilles was my first hero in F1 (and life) and will never be forgotten. RIP Gilles, you were someone very special indeed.
Jerry,
Great clip reminds me of my present day favourite Kubica, a modern day tradgedy although he escaped with his life (barely). I keep hoping to here something positive with him!!
Remember the context of the time when you consider the stats alone. Jackie Stewart’s 27 wins was still the record – far fewer races, far shorter careers, many ending in death. Far fewer active champions – in fact if memory serves there was a period sometime in the 70s when there was no active world champion. And most of those 6 wins in an absolute pig of a Ferrari…nothing endears like winning in a Ferrari that has no business winning.
But it was the way he drove that won the plaudits. Sadly, long before my time.
Because statistics rarely tell good stories.
312T4 looks sooo aggressive !! Very happy that Ferarri remembers Gilles even today – He was so wonderful to watch, the purest race driver ever – Some say faster than even Senna in the wet with indomitable spirit. I wish there was a driver like him nowadays :
Look at the 4th picture, he has the back of the car UNDERNEATH the grandstand !!!
http://www.crankandpiston.com/on-the-track/gilles-villeneuve-30-years-on-never-give-up/
Thank you very much for those. Oh, yes, the 4th is something else!
I think that’s a trick of the perspective, but look at the picture of young Jacques holding the wheel in his dad’s car. Look at his eyes!
With the greatest respect to the various photographers contributing to GP+, THAT is the greatest F1 photograph I have ever seen.
A great and fitting tribute.
Full marks to Ferrari.
Had to do a double take – in the first picture I thought it was Gilles in the overalls for a moment. Also, the third picture is a view I’ve never seen before – is that really what it looks like around Fiorano?
Can’t believe it’s 30 years…
I agree re the topography. Was never that hilly when I lived near there !
BUT
Lens foreshortening ? (I know nothing about photography !).
Hey Joe, you’ve started a trend. James Allen has been in Starbucks whilst tweeting today. #coffeeshopjoe
Viva Gilles!!!
Real racing, real racing driver (I was lucky enough to witness him), real racing car, real circuits… and not a computer or stupid rule in sight
Sigh
Joe, what’s your opinion/feelings on Gilles Villeneuve?
I was lucky enough to see Villeneuve in his days as a racer in the Atlantic series, in Canada. Anyone who saw him race, knew immediately that here, was someone special.
We’d stand next to the wall at a certain corner snapping pictures, and Gilles would drive by and wave. He’d chuckle about it later, when approached in the paddock.
Not a pretentious bone in his body. What you saw is what you got. When he was needed to comment after a session on the track, he wouldn’t run and hide, but stand and give his thoughts. Tough on the track, but sporting and the fairest of them all. Add to that, incredible finesse and control ( of those beasts that Ferrari produced), and the fans fell in love with him.
Thank you Ferrari, for the incredible tribute. First Class all the way.
Good work by Ferrari for hosting the event – I hope the Ferrari upper management simply wanted to do it because it’s right to do so, though I suspect that they’re aware of the marketing value as well. This post is a case in point.
In a way, I wonder if F1 should have a proper memorial of sorts each year to remember those who died, many of whom were much less famous than Gilles.
And for anyone who sees the photos and pines for “the good old days”; for all the negatives you can throw at modern F1, at least we’re not adding any more memorial events to the calendar.
Irony moment : indirectly, or rather, accidentally, Jacques is the last F1 driver to be involved in a grand prix fatality.
Jacques looks like he’s had a hair transplant.
And why not? If woman can have fake boobs, surely man can have a hair transplant?
Compelled to say this again: those are the most wonderfully engaging photos. They sing out, and yet draw you in. Giles, peeking out of his cockpit, is the most engaging, telling you something, communicating. Did we loose so much? I mean I can’t fall in love with looking at any photos of the current lot, the way I just did today, doe eyed and silly maybe, at these. Did everything become so dull? I can’t say, but I think these photos ought to cause soul searching to regain the heart of F1, and articulate the argument better than a thousand walls of text from me, in a single glance.
The seventies were a special era, not just for Formula One but for the music, fashion and culture. Agreed, most things today are bland and homogenous, even the tv shows…
The evolution of the modern day Formula One Race car is function and beauty in its prime.
Feeling like that is also called “getting old”..:D
JUKS,
nail on head, but please bang more softly mate!
The article was very interesting to read Joe and the car is just awesome. However not to be a party pooper I have always wondered what the mystique of GV was. Had he not died, and of course we all wish this were the case, he may have gone on to greatness. But sadly his death put paid to any future potential. When people talk of him as a ‘great’ I cringe. He was certainly talented but he didn’t win many GPs. Sorry but if he had retired after a similar career he would now be forgotten.
If you weren’t there, then you may not understand why he was great. His commitment to honour his contract as a number 2 driver to Jody meant that he stayed in second, when he could have easily taken the championship. That is also one reason why Pironi became the traitor, ( that he really was), and some say lead to Gilles death.
The old man knew from the very beginning that GV was special. and was treated like a son. I still believe a piece of Enzo’s soul drove with Gilles every time he stepped into the car.
There are numerous definitions of greatness and Gilles was the quintessential embodiment of many of them, as those most qualified to judge at the time freely opined. Their estimation of him didn’t increase upon his death, it simply continued to be stated. The greatness you speak of is the record book, the one place where Michael Schumacher is the most honourable one.
Perfectly put.
Some pundits said at the time, that, while Gilles was the most spectacular driver to watch, some others drivers, like for example Piquet and Prost, were actually better drivers overall when compared to Gilles. Gilles was incredibly fast, but he often ruined it with his make it or break it style.
A stunning Ferrari! and my favorite scalextric car! Thanks for the trip down memory lane Joe.
Coup de Feu, A great read! More insight about Gilles Villenueuve, the consummate F1 driver:
http://thestar.blogs.com/autoracing/2012/05/may-8-1982-gilles-villeneuve-aka-gunfire.html
Doesn’t it look great in those pictures. I bet the sound was bouncing off those hills surrounding the track and making a wonderful din, a sunny day and a Ferrari driven by one of the greats – what a perfect setting !
I first saw Gilles at Long Beach in 1978 and became an instant fan. He steered with the throttle as much as the wheel. Salut Gilles, R.I.P.
That’s how all racing cars should be steered..
A fitting tribute to a true legend. I would recommend Gerald Donaldson’s excellent book on Villeneuve.
Me too.
Tip gratefully received, guys!
I like the paragraph about him and Pironi (I think) nailing the throttle as they whizzed toward a toll booth returning from Monaco (I think)
Thanks for that Joe – top read here of memories of a great name. Some extremely interesting video links as a huge bonus.
And Mike – found a mint condition Gerald Donaldson book on the Man, now on its way to me. Thank you.
Forghieri wears his cool in that uniquely Italian way. Very Mastroianni.