Gilles Villeneuve

On this very day thirty years ago came to an end the life of one of Formula One's most perduring legends. A man who embodied the concept of motor racing in its purest, most romantic form.
It's hard to think of anything that hasn't been said already about Gilles Villeneuve. A man devoid of fear, who never gave anything other than his very best whatever the circumstances often capable of achieving breathtaking feats often in the face of impossible odds. We hear often the words "taking the car into positions it has no right to be in" about drivers who out-perform their machinery when they display impressive form. That expression could have been invented for Gilles, for whom the heroic was a matter of routine. Heroic feats he was made to perform, and he had to more often than he should have had, having found himself in the cockpit of two of the worst cars Ferrari ever produced in F1.
"Why try? He's different to the rest of us. Just different". J Laffite, Watkins Glen 1979

It speaks volumes of his enduring legend that the tales of his exploits continues to capture the imagination of those who like myself weren't even around during his short career.

Here are a few choice pictures in a sort of photo tribute from his days on snow to Formula Atlantic through to the Ferrari cockpit:

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... and of course, THAT battle with Arnoux:

 
There is a lesson to be learned in that article if indeed it is completely factual and that is:

Don't drive with anger born out of frustration, or indeed just don't drive angry....
 
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Especially if you are in a car as badly built as that Ferrari was. If I recall correctly all the seat mounts broke and he was thrown out of the car.
 
Yes FB thats right, the seat mounts did break. In fairness to Ferrari though there probably would have been the same result regardless what make he was driving. It wasn't unusual for a driver to be thrown out of his car in previous era's. Remember Martin Donnally's near fatal accident when his Lotus broke in two throwing him onto the track, it's shown in the Senna Movie. Thankfully cars are immeasurably better built today out of stronger more forgiving materials. I don't think they even had crash testing in the early to mid 80's at the time of the Villeneuve accident.
 
Actually on that occasion being thrown out of his car was probably what saved Donnelly seeing as though the entire front-section totally exploded...

As for Villeneuve his neck was broken when the car impacted the ground so being thrown out probably wouldn't have made any difference to his chances of survival.
 
Pure chance though Incubus, 'probably' is the key word in your first sentence. The main point I was making is that F1 cars today provide a driver with a much better chance of survival.
 
Out of decency and respect for Gilles there is no way I'd post his crash but Mark Webber's crash below, is almost identical to that of Villeneuve's and just shows how far we've come. The biggest factor is that the nose structure remains intact on Webber's car where as on Villeneuve's it breaks up and digs the car into the ground and a huge G-force inducing end over end flip. Webber's car on the other hand falls back down on to the track in one piece and then slides to a rest.

 
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I think that was also one of the cricisms aimed at ground-effect cars at the time... There was some suspicion that a ground-effect car when taking to the air after a crash instead of simply landing at the point of impact was more likely to follow an unpredictable "pattern of flight", with all sorts of weird airflow under the chassis, cars would sort of "hang in the air" for a second or so... Difficult to prove but apart from the crashes involving Villeneuve and Pironi there were also a lot of other crashes involving cars taking to the air in 1982.... I think that was one of the reasons why they decided to revert to flat bottoms in '83.

Maybe that's something to bear in mind for those who long for the return of full ground-effect cars?....
 
He didn't die instantly though did he, he died later in hospital and who's to say when his neck was injured it could have happened when his body hit the fencing and not when the car hit the ground and so it is possible that a stronger harness could have saved his life...
 
Even though he lost his life you have to remember that these drivers are and were fully aware of the dangers they put themselves in and nothing would stop them from racing, the below video shows this, don't watch if you are easily upset..

 
He didn't die instantly though did he, he died later in hospital and who's to say when his neck was injured it could have happened when his body hit the fencing and not when the car hit the ground and so it is possible that a stronger harness could have saved his life...
There is film showing not only the accident but also the aftermath with the medical team trying to restart his heart, it's very graphic. They failed so he did die instantly though I don't think it was ever determined whether it was the violence of the accident or the impact after being thrown out that killed him.
 
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All I can say is that I'm bloody glad we don't see this happening regularly anymore. Jules Bianchi's accident was exactly that where as many previous serious injuries and fatalities in F1 have probably been avoidable. Such is the benefit of hindsight and knowledge of modern safety systems though.
 
I'm not good with a lack of vowels. 100% no offence meant. Serious!!!! really, no offence!!! How do you pronounce @iokiqc ? P.S. welcome to the site. Hope you stick around many pop in and leave again. PLEASE STAY!!! I hope it's not my fault. Did I say I love new people? and I'm drunk? :D
 
I'm from Montreal and witnessing his 3rd position with the front wing detached at the 1981 Grand Prix very close to the track with my 6-years old eyes made me a fan of F1 that still lasts to this day
Welcome @Iokiqc. Greetings from another Gilles fan (and fellow Canadian)
 
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