Today is the 25th anniversary of Gilles Villeneuve's death. Gilles (Jacques' father) was one of the greatest Formula One racing drivers.
He only drove for 4½ years, and his track record of only 6 Grand Prix wins tell little of just how good he was. In only his fifth season racing cars he was given a one-race only opportunity to drive for McLaren in the 1977 British GP. He drove an out-of-date McLaren, qualified ninth, and after an early pit stop rejoined a lap behind but right behind the leaders, including the reigning world champion, James Hunt, in a newer and faster McLaren. Villeneuve stayed with the leaders for the rest of the race, setting the fifth-fastest lap of the day. After this single race Ferrari signed him on for the next season, and he drove for them for the rest of his career. In only his second Formula One season, 1979, he finished second in the championship. He would have won, but was ordered by the Ferrari team to let his team-mate Jody Scheckter win.
In the 1980 and 1981 season the Ferrari cars were too slow compared to the rest of the field, but in 1982 they gave him a much faster car. It looked like he was going to win the championship, but was fatally injured during practice for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder.
Even today flags with his image are flown at the F1 tracks around the world. His early and untimely death was not what made him a legend, however. It was his spirit, his charisma, and his gentlemanly behavior which made him immensely popular among fans and rivals alike, but above all his talent, which made him maybe the fastest racing driver of his time.
Alain Prost, whose record of 51 Grand Prix victories was broken by Schumacher said a year after Gilles' death: "Gilles was the last great driver, the rest of us are just a bunch of good professionals."
Jacques Laffite: "No human being can do miracles, you know, but Gilles made you wonder".
Triple world champion Niki Lauda described him as "a perfect racing driver... the best - and the fastest - in the world".
Some of his seemingly impossible feats:
# In wet practice for the 1979 US GP at Watkins Glen, Villeneuve was fastest by 8.5 seconds - and at one point was 11 seconds quicker than any other car on the circuit at the same time, including Scheckter;
# At Monaco in 1980, driving the truck-like Ferrari 312 T5, Villeneuve was five seconds a lap faster than anyone else during a late-race shower of rain;
# Arguably his two greatest victories came in 1981, when he won in Monaco and Spain on the two tightest tracks in a car with a chassis that was years behind its rivals;
# In Canada in 1981, he finished third with a car that had lost its front wing in a collision.
Even though racing for Ferrari was Villeneuve's dream, he was unhappy with the way the team was run. He would quite probably have gone to McLaren, whose boss Ron Dennis had already offered him a $3m salary - a lot more than any other driver was earning.
Had Villeneuve lived, he might have joined McLaren at the height of his powers and just as they were embarking on a period of unprecedented domination in F1.
Who knows what records might then have fallen to Villeneuve.
As it was, he crashed to his death, and so one of the finest drivers the world has ever seen never got the chance to reach the ultimate heights.
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."
When I kill her, I'll have her
Die white girls, die white girls
Yeah, a shame we'll never know what could've been. A shame too that 22-year-old Lewis Hamilton began his Formula One career just after Schumacher quit. Hamilton (McLaren) holds the record of being the only driver ever to finish in the top-three in all of his first four Grand Prix, and at the 2007 Spanish Grand Prix (two days ago), he became the youngest driver ever to lead the F1 drivers' championship, beating the record held since 1960 by Bruce McLaren, the founder of the McLaren team.
Also driving for McLaren is reigning world champion Fernando Alonso (26 y.o.), who holds a few records himself: Youngest GP Pole Position Winner, Youngest GP Race Winner, and Youngest Formula One World Drivers' Champion (2005). Ferrari has Felipe Massa (26 y.o.), who after switching to Ferrari last year has been quite the sensation. He had a few problems in the first races this year, but won the last two and is currently #3 in the championship. Rí¤ikkí¶nen (28 y.o.) switched from McLaren to Ferrari this year, and while never actually winning the championship he has a lot of potential. He has been the runner-up twice, holds the joint record of 7 wins in a single season without winning the World Title (shared with four time World Champion Alain Prost, who initially set the record in 1984 and matched it in 1988, and now also Michael Schumacher, in 2006). In the 2005 season, he also equalled Michael Schumacher's record of 10 fastest race laps in a season, set in 2004. He currently holds the tenth highest record for total fastest laps at 20, thus making him the highest ranked driver still active.
Schumacher is ten years older than the oldest of these guys (Rí¤ikkí¶nen), so it seems that the sport is entering an exciting new phase. After almost 15 years of domination by Schumacher this is just what the sport needs.
When I kill her, I'll have her
Die white girls, die white girls
Thought I'd dig up this old thread after the conclusion of the F1 Championship yesterday.
Lewis Hamilton won the Championship, and has taken the record for youngest champion away from Alonso (who set the record at age 24) by winning at age 23. Hamilton won by the smallest of margins over Felipe Massa. Here's a recap:
Schumacher has said that he now worries about his record seven Championship titles. Schumacher won his first Championship at age 25.
Obviously, Hamilton was the wrong winner, but I'm happy to see some excitement back in F1. Maybe I'll start watching again
When I kill her, I'll have her
Die white girls, die white girls
Well the conspiracy theories suggest Timo Glock handed it to Hamilton, but the fact of the matter is that this sport hasn't been clean for years. That extra point Massa was given when he was promoted a place due to that 25 second penalty a couple of races ago was downright scandalous. The FIA (Ferrari International Assistance) have done their utmost to ensure Hamilton and McLaren didn't win the championship but what goes around comes around.
