Gilles villeneuve enzo ferrari biography

Gilles was born Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve on 18th January 1950 in Bertierville, Quebec in Canada. His father was a piano tuner who loved to do hair raising stunts in cars. Gilles built himself a small 'car' from a lawnmower when he was 5 years old, and although he made a mess of the garden, his father encouraged him to keep going in that direction.

His father taught him to drive when he was 9, letting him drive the van on fields and counrty lanes, and at 15 as a birthday present he was given an MG 'A' which he immediately tweaked and entered in races with friends. He had a vast knowledge of mechanics and was always playing with his car trying to get more out of it. He bought a Ford Mustang and put an 8 litre engine in it, and then tried drag racing and some oval racing, but found both pretty boring, and he decided he needed a more challenging type of motorsport.

Gilles first started racing snowmobiles in his early 20s after trying drag racing and dirttrack midgets. He became Canadian snowmobile champion and from there decided to switch back to cars, but this time to Formula Ford, the equivalent of FF2000. He went to a race school and gained his racing licence at the first attempt. To gain money and race in Formula Ford, Gilles continued racing snowmobiles in the winter, and this was successful, he was Canadian snowmobile champion and Formula Ford champion in 1973. In 1974, Gilles switched to Formula Atlantic, and wrecked his team's cars immediately! After the team bought some new cars, Gilles soon became a very competitive driver, and his familiar sideways driving, was soon recognised.

In 1976, Gilles became Formula Atlantic champion and entered the Trois Rivieres street race. At the race were several F1 stars, including James Hunt and Alan Jones. Amazingly, Gilles beat them! This impressed Hunt so much that he arranged an F1 test session with his McLaren team for Gilles. Before the test Gilles tried his hand at the Can-Am sportscar

Canadian racing driver (1950–1982)

Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve (French pronunciation:[ʒilvil.nœv]; 18 January 1950 – 8 May 1982) was a Canadian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1977 to 1982. Villeneuve was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1979 with Ferrari, and won six Grands Prix across six seasons.

A racing enthusiast from an early age, Villeneuve started his career in snowmobile racing across his native province of Quebec. He soon progressed to open-wheel racing, winning the regional Formula Ford championship in 1973 before graduating to Formula Atlantic, where he won two Canadian Championships in 1976 and 1977, and the American Championship in 1976. Villeneuve made his Formula One debut with McLaren at the 1977 British Grand Prix, impressing Enzo Ferrari, who signed him with Ferrari for 1978. He made an early debut for the team at the Canadian Grand Prix after the departure of World ChampionNiki Lauda, and was involved in a collision with Ronnie Peterson which killed two bystanders at the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix. Amidst struggles with Michelin's radial tyres the following year, Villeneuve took his maiden podium in Austria before winning his home Grand Prix in Canada. He won several races in 1979, ultimately finishing the championship runner-up to teammate Jody Scheckter by four points. Villeneuve earned widespread acclaim for his performances, including his duel with René Arnoux at the French Grand Prix. After a winless season for Ferrari with the 312T5 in 1980, Villeneuve took back-to-back wins at the Monaco and Spanish Grands Prix in 1981, earning further acclaim for his defensive tactics at the latter.

During qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, Villeneuve died as the result of a collision with Jochen Mass. He achieved six wins, two pole positions, eight fastest laps and 13 podiums in Formula One. At the time of his death, Villeneuve was widely popul

Italian racing driver, engineer and entrepreneur (1898–1988)

This article is about the founder of Ferrari. For the automobile named after Enzo Ferrari, see Ferrari Enzo. For the Italian footballer and manager, see Enzo Ferrari (Italian footballer). For other uses, see Enzo Ferrari (disambiguation).

"Il Commendatore" redirects here. For other uses, see Commendatore.

Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria FerrariCavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (; Italian:[ˈɛntsoanˈsɛlmoferˈraːri]; 18 February 1898 – 14 August 1988) was an Italian motor racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia FerrariGrand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari automobile marque. Under his leadership, Scuderia Ferrari won nine drivers' world championships and eight constructors' world championships in Formula 1 during his lifetime.

He was widely known as il Commendatore or il Drake, a nickname given by British opponents in reference to the English privateerFrancis Drake, due to Ferrari's demonstrated ability and determination in achieving significant sports results with his small company. In his final years, he was often referred to as l'Ingegnere ("the Engineer"), il Grande Vecchio ("the Grand Old Man"), il Cavaliere ("the Knight"), il Mago ("the Wizard"), and il Patriarca ("the Patriarch").

Early life

E