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bedcanada's magic moment |
17/03/08 |
Well guys, as all of you know I am a Canadian and I was there when
Gilles won the Canadian GP in Montreal so please excuse me if I am a bit
subjective in my post… But then again, which true Ferrari Fan isn’t when
it comes to Gilles?
Montreal GP 1978, with Gilles having done so well in the season so far
you all can imagine that all sorts of Canadians had rushed to the
circuit. The stands were packed, I spent the whole race either on my
dad’s shoulders or standing on the bench with each remark from the radio
describing how close Gilles had come to getting off the track. If I ever
find out that I can’t have any children, it’s because of the damage that
day did to my balls!!!
As you all know, Gilles won the race, but what is not known or spoken of
seldom these days is HOW he drove the race. I was sitting on the finish
line and it’s not a place where you usually see action, but we saw
Gilles overtake cars three times on the straight in front of us with the
last time his car POWERSLIDING on a straight line while overtaking
Andretti and Roseberg who despite being backrunners in the race, were
showed no blue flags and they gave Gilles a hard run for the money. I
was 6 years old at the time and I was already half drunk by the time the
race finished.
I saw him again in Watkins Glen where we spent the whole week. The track
was soaked, we were all drenched and all the Canadians that had come
there were feeling bad because the race was probably going to be
cancelled if the weather went on like that. Qualifying starts and Gilles
goes out… He came back in having turned in consistent laps eleven
seconds faster than anybody else!!! He didn’t win the race, but having
seen that nobody of us Canadians left Watkins Glen feeling anything less
than a victory. And of course all of you know the famous picture of him
going at full speed and something flying off from the bottom of his car.
Gilles was not crazy, nor did he have a deathwish. I bet he would have
wanted to live to a hundred and then bargain for some more. What he was
though was a perfectionist of a race driver. Let’s face it, he did not
have a masterpiece of a Ferrari at his hands and he was battling the
world-conquering Lotuses but he was a race car driver and when he sat in
his car he did what he had to do. Those years, what he had to do,
actually what the whole team had to do was make those cars better, but
Gilles was not the sort of person who was going to give feedback on the
car and then wait for the engineers to fix the problem and THEN go out
and start winning races with a good car. Every time he sat down in his
car, he tried to make the best of it, and he did.
It was never Gilles’s intention to powerslide, and when asked about it
he just shrugged and replied that he was not fulfilled with the results
he was getting when he pushed the car to the limit, so he had to step
above the limit and by doing so he showed his masterful skills. It can
be argued that his method was caused his car to break down more often
than not, and that this contributed to his relatively low win total, but
at least the guy gave all he had for the race. Case in point; take a
look at his teammates: Reutmann was usually three or four places behind
him and Pironi would never ever have won that race had it not been for
Gilles. But did he ever endanger his teammates by doing so? Never. As a
matter of fact he was admired for this, because whatever he was doing,
even in Dijon, Arnoux said after the race that the one in danger was
always Gilles. Arnoux was amazed that during that whole epic battle
Gilles backed off a bit only when he felt that Arnoux could be hurt, but
other than that Arnoux said that “I could smell Gilles sweat, he was so
close but I was safe. He made me feel that I could fight with him for
that position with full sportsmanship”. Arnoux cried in public when he
was told that Gilles died.
Tell me of another driver who has had this resolve, who has stepped up
for a great fight for points, places, or a win with no holds barred, yet
commanded utmost respect from all. Lauda said 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"
Enzo Ferrari once said that he was going to give Gilles an umbrella the
next time he raced. Because even if there was a clear sky outside or a
clean race going on, there was a tornado inside Gilles’s car because
that guy was trying to make everything, every single thing to make that
car go one second faster. Where do we see that today? When Alonso
displayed that fantastic form at the Spanish GP, Flavio Briatore was so
happy and naturally ecstatic walking down the pit lane. He ran into
Nigel Roebuck from Autosport magazine and Flavio, after receiving
Roebuck’s congratulations asked him if he had ever seen a race where the
driver had driven a full race as if he was driving qualifying laps as
Alonso had done. Nigel only replied by saying: “Gilles Villeneuve”.
Flavio couldn’t even reply.
And finally there was honor and dignity. Gilles was in a car that was
handling like a truck, in Canada he was asked what he had to say about
this (because Reutmann had complained his ass off), Gilles just replied
that there was a whole team working on the cars that they were driving,
these people working day and night know that the car is not handling
well or needs more power so a driver like himself can do one of two
things: Keep the morale up and work with them or complain. Himself, he
was happy with “les boys” and nobody gives up in a Ferrari.
Mansell complained.
Prost complained.
Arnoux complained.
Alesi complained.
Schekter complained.
Ickx complained.
Lauda complained.
Gilles wanted to win each LAP rather than win each RACE.
Let's hear Gilles's answer: “I never think I can hurt myself not
seriously. If you believe it can happen to you, how can you do this job?
If you’ve never over eight tenths, or whatever, because you’re thinking
about a shunt, you’re not going as quick as you can. And if you’re not
doing that, you’re not a racing driver. Some guys in Formula 1… well, to
me, they’re not racing drivers. They drive racing cars, that’s all.
They’re doing half a job. And in that case, I wonder why they do it at
all…”
"If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would
have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to
drive for Ferrari" - Gilles Villeneuve
He left us too early. |
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