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Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve (Gilles Villeneuve pronounced ) (January 18, 1950
– May 8, 1982) was a Canadian Formula One racing driver.
An enthusiast of cars and fast driving from an early age, he started his
professional career in snowmobile racing in his native province of Quebec. He moved
into single seaters — winning the US and Canadian Formula Atlantic championships in
1976 before being offered a one-off drive with McLaren at the 1977 British Grand
Prix. He was taken on by reigning world champions Ferrari for the end of the season
— in only his fifth season racing cars — and from 1978 to his death in 1982 drove
for the Italian team. He won six Grand Prix races in a short career at the highest
level. In 1979 he finished second by four points in the championship to teammate
Jody Scheckter.
Villeneuve died in a 140 mph (225 kmh) crash with the March of Jochen Mass during
practice for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder (see more below). The accident
came less than two weeks after an intense argument with his team-mate, Didier
Pironi, over Pironi's move to pass Villeneuve at Imola despite team orders to
remain in the same position until the end of the race. At the time of his death,
Villeneuve was extremely popular with fans and with many journalists, on whom his
death had a profound effect. Since 1982 he has become an iconic figure in the
history of the sport, renowned for his car control, aggressive driving style, and a
'never give up' attitude. His son, Jacques Villeneuve, became Formula One world
champion in 1997.
 Personal and early
life
Villeneuve was born in Richelieu, a small town in the
French-speaking province of Quebec in Canada and grew up in the nearby town of
Berthierville. He married Joann Barthe in 1970, with whom he had two children,
Jacques and Melanie. 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. He often claimed to
have been born in 1952. By the time he got his break in Formula One, 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.
Like certain other great drivers, including Clark and Senna, Villeneuve was a
curious mixture of seemingly disparate personality types. Lauda wrote 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". Flying, snowmobiling or driving,
he was a risk-taker of classic proportions. Yet his fellow drivers said that on the
track he was scrupulously fair and did not put anyone's safety other than his own
in jeopardy and those who worked with him usually referred to him as introverted.
This combination of traits made him exceptionally popular not only with fans but
with teammates and opponents as well.
His younger brother Jacques, known as "uncle Jacques", also had a successful racing
career in Formula Atlantic, Can Am and CART. Gilles' son, also named Jacques, won
the Indianapolis 500 and CART championships in 1995 and became Formula One World
Champion in 1997.
Death
On
May 8, 1982, after failing to beat Pironi's time on his first qualifying lap
for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder by only 0.1s, Villeneuve decided to try
one final time to take pole position. Using a set of scrubbed qualifying
tyres, by now past their best, Villeneuve was well into his flying lap when he
came up behind Jochen Mass's March 821, who was driving sedately towards the
pits having completed his own qualifying attempt. Mass began to cede the
racing line to Villeneuve, moving to the right, but Gilles had already
committed to passing the March on that side, possibly due to steering problems
which had afflicted his car during practice. The front left wheel of
Villeneuve's car came into contact with the right rear wheel of Mass' car,
launching the Ferrari into the air. The car partially flipped, before
nose-diving into the soft earthen embankment just outside the armco and then
somersaulting along the side of the track. The violence of the accident
reduced the car to its cockpit, and ripped Villeneuve's seat from the back of
the monocoque. Villeneuve, without his helmet, was thrown across the track and
into the catch fencing just outside the corner.
Derek Warwick, the first driver to pass the destroyed Ferrari, pulled up a short
way along the track and hurried back to assist Villeneuve. Aided by fellow driver
John Watson, the pair extricated Villeneuve's body from the fencing and laid him on
the ground. By the time the medical team arrived Villeneuve was not breathing.
Villeneuve was resuscitated at the scene, but his injuries were fatal. He died in a
local hospital that evening, his fatal injuries were likely caused by the force of
his car landing for the first time after the initial impact. If his death was not
greeted with great shock and surprise (everyone knew his style), that was more than
offset by the profound sadness it produced. Even René Arnoux, his adversary in the
Dijon epic, confessed that he cried after discovering that Gilles had died.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Gilles
Villeneuve - Generator - Biography
