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Happy Birthday, Gilles Villeneuve. Where do I start?
The greatest driver never to win the Formula 1 world drivers' championship. One of the regrets have been I missed watching his race pace and relentless driving whenever he steps in the car.
The greatest driver never to win the Formula 1 world drivers' championship. One of the regrets have been I missed watching his race pace and relentless driving whenever he steps in the car.
After impressing James Hunt in the non Formula 1 championship races, McLaren offered him a drive up to 5 races in the third car for 1977 season. The Canadian driver started his Formula 1 career with McLaren at the 1977 British GP.
Despite putting an impressive show, McLaren decided not to renew his contract. Meanwhile, Ferrari pounced on him and have offered a drive with the team in 1977 for the last two races replacing Niki Lauda and 1978.
After enduring a difficult 1978, Gilles Villeneuve missed out on the world championship by only 4 points in 1979 to his teammate Jody Scheckter. With Ferrari enduring their worst ever season in 1980, seeds were sown when Ferrari signed Didier Pironi to replace Jody Scheckter.
When we think of rivalry in Formula 1, we talk about Senna-Prost, Micheal Schumacher-Mika Hakkinen, Fernando Alonso-Lewis Hamilton, Vettel - Hamilton, Niki Lauda - Hunt. But, one of the underrated and overlooked rivalries in Formula 1 belongs Pironi and Villeneuve.
The rivalry peaked when Pironi failed to comply with the team order and passed Gilles to win the 1982 San Marino GP by 0.3s. He became obsessed with beating Pironi when he set the fastest lap in the 1982 Belgian GP qualifiers.
He pushed too fast and bumped into the slow-moving Jochen Mass, which launched his car into the air at 200kmph with airborne for 100 meters. The generational talent had his last breath in the hospital on the same day.
"He lived by the sword and died by the it".
"He lived by the sword and died by the it".
Such a shame that we have never had a chance to see him drive against Senna. The rivalry between Pironi and Villeneuve is very special that after Pironi's death in 1987, his girlfriend gave birth to twins.
To commemorate Pironi and Villeneuve, she named them Didier and Gilles. One of them is Gilles Pironi, who works with Mercedes as an engineer, stood on the podium and received constructors' trophy at the 2020 British Grand Prix.
