Gilles Villeneuve

Race Car Driver

Gilles Villeneuve was born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada on January 18th, 1950 and is the Race Car Driver. At the age of 32, Gilles Villeneuve biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.

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Other Names / Nick Names
Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve
Date of Birth
January 18, 1950
Nationality
Canada
Place of Birth
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada
Death Date
May 8, 1982 (age 32)
Zodiac Sign
Capricorn
Networth
$10 Million
Profession
Formula One Driver, Motorcycle Racer
Gilles Villeneuve Height, Weight, Eye Color and Hair Color

At 32 years old, Gilles Villeneuve has this physical status:

Height
157cm
Weight
Not Available
Hair Color
Light brown
Eye Color
Blue
Build
Slim
Measurements
Not Available
Gilles Villeneuve Religion, Education, and Hobbies
Religion
Not Available
Hobbies
Not Available
Education
Not Available
Gilles Villeneuve Spouse(s), Children, Affair, Parents, and Family
Spouse(s)
Not Available
Children
2, including Jacques
Dating / Affair
Not Available
Parents
Not Available
Siblings
Jacques Villeneuve, Sr. (brother)
Gilles Villeneuve Life

Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve (French pronunciation: ​[ʒil vilnœv]) (January 18, 1950 – May 8, 1982) 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.

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. 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. 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. 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 (230 km/h) crash caused by 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 San Marino Grand Prix. 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. His son, Jacques Villeneuve, became Formula One World Champion in 1997 and, to date, the only Canadian to win the Formula One World Championship.

Personal and early life

Villeneuve was born to piano-tuner Seville Villeneuve and his wife Georgette (née Coupal) in the province of Quebec in Canada and grew up in Berthierville. 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.

Villeneuve 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 motorsport.

His younger brother 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.

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Gilles Villeneuve Career

Early career

Villeneuve began competing in local drag-racing competitions, driving his road car, a 1967 Ford Mustang. He was soon bored and enrolled in the Jim Russell Racing School at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant to get a racing licence. He had a fruitful season with Formula Ford in Quebec, winning seven of the ten races he entered. He progressed to Formula Atlantic this year, and ran his own car for one of those seasons. In 1975, he won his first Atlantic race at Gimli Motosport Park, which was also heavy rain. In 1976, Ray Wardell, partnered with Chris Harrison's Ecurie Canada and factory March race engineer, dominated the season by winning all but one of the races and taking the US and Canadian championships. In 1977, he won the Canadian championship for the second time.

In Villeneuve's early career, money was very limited. He had been a competitive racing driver from his teens, but had no other income. The majority of his income in the first few years came from snowmobile racing, where he was particularly popular. Particularly after winning the 1974 World Championship Snowmobile Derby, he could request appearance as well as race money. Skiroule, a snowmobile manufacturer, sponsoring his second season in Formula Atlantic, was part of his second season in the sport. He owed a part of his triumph to his snowmobiling days:

Formula One career

After Villeneuve impressed James Hunt and other Grand Prix winners in a non-championship Formula Atlantic race at Trois-Rivières in 1976, Hunt's McLaren crew gave Villeneuve a Formula One contract for up to five races in a third car during the 1977 season. Villeneuve made his British Grand Prix debut in 1977, finishing 9th in McLaren's old M23, separating the regular drivers Hunt and Jochen Mass, who were driving the newer M26s. After being postponed for two laps by a bad temperature gauge, he set his fifth fastest lap and finished 11th in the series. The majority of the British press coverage of Villeneuveneuve's appearance was largely positive, with John Blunsden's comment in The Times that "Anyone looking for a future World Champion need look no further than this quietly assured young man."

Despite this, McLaren's veteran team manager Teddy Mayer, right after the British race, decided not to continue with Villeneuve next year. Villeneuve's explanation was that he seemed to be a bit costly," and that Patrick Tambay, the team's eventual pick for 1978, had similar hopes. Villeneuveneuve was left with no viable choices for 1978, but Walter Wolf, for whom Villeneuveneuve had competed in Can-Am racing, was considering giving him a shot at Wolf Racing. Villeneuveneuve was one of many drivers for whom Ferrari's staff was keen, and in August 1977, he travelled to Italy to see Enzo Ferrari, who was immediately reminded of Tazio Nuvolari, the pre-war European champion. "I immediately recognized in him this 'piccolo Canadese' (little Canadian), this tiny bundle of nerves, and said, 'let's give him a try." Despite the Canadian making many mistakes and establishing relatively slow times, Villeneuve decided to drive for Ferrari in the last two races of 1977 and 1978 alike. Villeneuve later commented, "If someone told me that you should have three wishes, your first would have been to start racing, my second to be in Formula 1, and third to drive for Ferrari."

Villeneuveneuve's appointment was prompted by Ferrari driver Niki Lauda's retirement from the team in 1977's penultimate race at Mosport Park near Toronto, having already clinched his second championship with the Italian team. Villeneuve resigned from his home run after losing track of another competitor's oil. He also competed in the Yokoyama Grand Prix near Tokyo in the last race of the season, but he resigned on lap five when he tried to outbrake Ronnie Peterson's Tyrrell P34. Villeneuve's Ferrari was airborne when the pair separated wheels, causing Villeneuve's Ferrari to become airborne. It landed on a crowd of spectators watching the race from a banned location, killing one spectator and a race marshal and injuring seven others. There was no blame put on the incident, but Villeneuve, although he was "terribly sad" at the deaths, did not feel responsible for them.

Villeneuve's 1978-1980s saw a string of resignations, many after having problems with the new Michelin radial tyres. He started on the front row of the United States Grand Prix West in Long Beach early in the season, but fell out of the lead on lap 39. Despite calls for him to be recalled, Ferrari stayed with him. Villeneuve's results increased as the season came to an end. He came in second second on the road at the Italian Grand Prix, but he was fined a minute for jumping the start and finished second in the United States Grand Prix, despite his engine's failure. Villeneuveneuve won his first Grand Prix victory, this time at the Circuit Notre Dame Island in Montreal, after Jean-Pierre Jarier's Lotus lost with engine trouble. He is the only Canadian to win the Canadian Grand Prix to date.

After Carlos Reutemann left for Lotus, Villeneuveneuve was joined by Jody Scheckter in 1979. After winning back to back races in Long Beach and Kyalami, Villeneuve won three races throughout the year and even briefly led the championship. Nevertheless, the season is best remembered for Villeneuve's wheel-banging rivalry with René Arnoux in the last laps of the 1979 French Grand Prix's last laps. With three laps to go, Arnoux took second place, but Villeneuve re-passed him on the next lap. On the final lap, Arnoux attempted to pass Villeneuveneuve again, and the two fought side by side through the first few corners of the lap, often making contact. Arnoux took the position, but Villeneuveneuve attempted an outside pass one corner later. Villeneuve slid wide, but then slid wide, but then he slid past Arnoux on the inside, securing second place in the lap's second half. "I tell you, it was so much fun," Villeneuve later posted. Because one vehicle can climb over another, we're going to get on our heads, we're going to get on our heads, we should get to our heads," I thought for sure. Villeneuveneuve's left rear tyre fell on top of his schedule at the Dutch Grand Prix, knocking him off track. He returned to the track and limped back to the pit lane on three wheels, but lost the wheel on the way. On his return to the pit lane, Villeneuve insisted that the team replace the missing wheel and that the vehicle was beyond repair. Villeneuve may have dominated the World Championship by refusing team orders to defeat Scheckter at the Italian Grand Prix, but he's still finished last, ending his own championship attempt. With Scheckter defeated Villeneuveneuve by just four points, the pair finished first and second in the championship. Villeneuve set a time that was either 9 or 11 seconds quicker than any other driver during the intensely rainy Friday training session for the season-ending United States Grand Prix. Jody Scheckter, his teammate, was the second fastest, recalled that "I was scared of myself rigid that day." I had hoped to be the fastest. I remembered Gilles' time as a child, but I don't know how it was possible.

Eleven seconds!"

Ferrari's 1980 season was subparsed. Villeneuve had been deemed favourite by bookmakers in the United Kingdom, but he only scored six points in the 312T5 which had only partial ground effects. At the end of the season, Scheckter scored only two points and then retired.

Ferrari's first turbocharged F1 car, the 126C, had a lot of torque but was let down by poor handling, which was let down by poor handling. Villeneuve was partnered with Didier Pironi, who said Villeneuve "had a little family [at Ferrari], but he made me welcome and made me feel at home overnight [he] treated me as an equal in every way." Villeneuve also won two races during the season. For the most part of the competition, Villeneuve had five faster cars behind him, thanks to his car's superior straight-line speed. Villeneuve led second-placed Jacques Laffite by only 0.22 seconds after an hour and 46 minutes of racing. Elio de Angelis, the fifth placer, was only a few seconds behind. "That bike had almost a quarter of the downforce that not had," Harvey Postlethwaite, who was hired by Ferrari to produce the sequel to the much-popular 126C2 that won the Constructors' Championship in 1982, later expressed disappointment on the 126C: "That car...had exactly one quarter of the downforce that never had," he said. Sure, it had a power advantage over the Cosworths, but it also had a lot of throttle lag at that time. I believe Gilles was on a different plane from the other pilots in terms of sheer capability. The 1981 GPs in Monaco and Jarama, which were on tight circuits, were very out of place in this world. I know how bad the car was." Villeneuveneuve, a 1981 Canadian Grand Prix winner, ruined the front wing of his Ferrari and drove for the majority of the season in heavy rain, with the wing obscured his view ahead. There was a danger of being disqualified, but Villeneuve came to a halt, and he finished third, with the nose portion of his car missing.

Ron Dennis, the team's owner, was tempted to rejoin McLaren in 1982, but he turned down the offer because he was nervous about ending his service with Ferrari but hopeful that the Italian team would be competitive. Villeneuve rode in Brazil in the new 126C2, before retiring and finishing third at the United States Grand Prix West before being disqualified for a technical infringement. The Ferraris were given an unexpected advantage at the San Marino Grand Prix as a result of the FISA–FOCA conflict, the FOCA teams canceled the competition, effectively leaving Renault as Ferrari's only legitimate opposition. With Renault driver Prost relegated from fourth position on lap 7 and his colleague Arnoux on the 44th lap Ferrari seemed to have the victory pledged, the team had the win guaranteed. The Ferrari team asked both drivers to slow down in order to save fuel and ensure the cars were finished. Villeneuve assumed that the order required the drivers to maintain their positions, but Pironi took Villeneuve. Villeneuve re-passed Pironi and slowed down a few laps later, suspecting that Pironi was simply attempting to please the Italian audience. On the last lap, Pironi sprinted and boldly chopped across the front of Gilles, taking the victory. Villeneuve was furious because he suspected Pironi had disobeyed the order to maintain position. Pironi, on the other hand, said he did not do anything wrong because the team had only ordered the cars to slow down and not maintain position. "I think it is well known that if I want someone to remain behind me and I am faster," Villeneuve said after the race. Villeneuve, a betrayed and enraged woman, had vowed never to talk to Pironi again.

In 2007, John Hogan, Ferrari's former Vice President of Marketing and later Jaguar Racing team principal who worked with Villeneuve's career, denied allegations that Pironi had left the company prior to a previous deal with Villeneuveneuve. "Neither of them would have agreed to what amounts to a contest," he said. "I think Gilles was stunned" that someone had out-driven him and that it hadn't taken him so much by surprise." A comparison of the two drivers' lap times showed that Villeneuve lapped much slower when he was leading, implying that he had actually been trying to save fuel.

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