Cheers!
John
Cheers!
John
Qualifying saw the most incredible talents of Gilles. You may not like it,
but for our people he's a cultural icon and I need to defend him. I don't
care much about Jacques. He's nothing compared to the pure racing talents
that Gilles had.
Remember this is the driver who got a qualifying lap at Watkins Glens under
the rain 11 (yes eleven!) seconds ahead of the second place. It was the
first day of qualifying, and here is a quote from Jacque Laffite when this
happened :
"Why do we bother ? He's different from the rest of us, on another level
..."
This is the driver who got into the incredible battle with Ren Arnoux at
the 1979 French GP. Enzo Ferrari always considered him as on the same level
as Tazio Nuvolari. He remembers Gilles continuing his Montreal F1 race with
a totally bent front of the car, finishing third, or racing with a blown
tyre at Zandy in 79, and qualifying a full second almost ahead of everybody
at Imola in 81. His best races were never his wins.
He should had won the 1979 World Championship. He had to let the win to Jody
and finish second, who was in a superior car at that time (Ferrari always
gave a better car to Jody), and against the ground-effect Lotus also.
Im probably biased by seeing him in other types of racing. He was one of
the best snowmobile drivers ever. When he first started his Formula
Atlantic season, he had to race with an incredible poor team (even had to
skip some races because the team had no money), but still managed to win the
championship over drivers like Jody Scheckter and other F1 drivers. He was
an incredibly airplane and helicopter pilot also, flying without a license
(of course heh).
If you want more info about him, check those websites :
http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/vill_bio.htm
http://www.forix.com/asp/pi.asp?k=0&l=2&r=7710040&c=0
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~bspahh/gilles/gilles1.html
-= Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard/Nas-Frank>
-= NROS Nascar sanctioned Guide http://www.nros.com/
-= SimRacing Online http://www.simracing.com/
-= Official mentally retarded guy of r.a.s.
-= May the Downforce be with you...
"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."
> Qualifying saw the most incredible talents of Gilles. You may not like it,
> but for our people he's a cultural icon and I need to defend him. I don't
> care much about Jacques. He's nothing compared to the pure racing talents
> that Gilles had.
Andy Backa The only skills I have the patience to learn are
- Calvin and Hobbes
Chewey Pages: http://home.istar.ca/~chewey
I understand that, but I think there is a case of rose-tinted glasses.
Finnish people would say the same about Keke Rosberg, he was a similar
type of driver, a hero, even a world champion - he has more claim to
being one of the Top 10 than Gilles,
Like Barrichello taking pole at Spa? Many things can happen in the
wet/drying track - we don't think Rubens is better than Schumi do we?
Show is good, flamboyance is good, but results are everything. It does
you no good to qualify a second ahead if you fall off the track at the
first turn, if you don't bring the car home, if you don't win the race
or the championship. Ask _why_ Gilles had to drive with the nose of
his car all bent up? If he hadn't hit something he wouldn't have been
so slow and wouldn't have had to make that run, heroic though it was.
Cheers!
John
I have to agree too. I was only 6 months old when Gilles died but he's
still a racing hero of mine. The way he always drove on the limit no
matter what the circumstances was great.
Clive James sums it up best on the 1982 F1 review video when he talks
about Piquet, Lauda and Villeneuve - "One of them was a new World
Champion. One of them was an old World Champion back from the fiery
furnace. And one of them deserved to be World champion, but didn't yet
know that he never would be. It probably wouldn't have stopped him even
if he did......"
He was an incredible racer and an incredible SPIRIT, which I see as
being just as big a factor. I can't ever picture Magny Cours being
renamed the Circuit Alain Prost, for example :-)
He'd definitely be in my top 10.
--
Cheers!
Graeme Nash
http://www.karisma1.demon.co.uk
ICQ# 11257824
1998 Xoom GP2 League Champion
<<"Why do we bother ? He's different from the rest of us, on another level
I had the privilage of being at Watkens Glen, in the grand stands in front
of the pits, when Gilles was doing his "out of this world drive".
At one time, it seems as if he was the only one EVERYONE was watching go by.
Everyone near me in the stands, Americans, Europeans, were chearing for him,
'cause he was giving what we all had come and paid to see ; a great F1
drive.
For this and many more reasons, he deserves to be in the top 10.
=;-D
Robert
Hull, Qubec
Fangio 47.06%
Ascari 40.63%
Clark 34.72%
Schumacher 28.21%
Stewart 27.27%
Prost 25.63%
Senna 25.47%
Moss 24.24%
J Villeneuve 22.45%
D Hill 22.22%
Mansell 16.58%
Farina 15.15%
Lauda 14.62%
Piquet 11.27%
Brabham 11.11%
Hunt 10.87%
Jones 10.34%
Rindt 10.00%
E Fittipaldi 9.72%
M Andretti 9.38%
G Villeneuve 8.96%
Scheckter 8.93%
Reutemann 8.22%
Peterson 8.13%
M Hakkinen 8.04%
G Hill 7.95%
Hulme 7.14%
Ickx 7.02%
Hawthorn 6.67%
Surtees 5.41%
Coulthard 5.41%
Gurney 4.65%
K Rosberg 4.39%
Laffite 3.41%
Cheers,
Paul
> I have to agree too. I was only 6 months old when Gilles died but he's
> still a racing hero of mine. The way he always drove on the limit no
> matter what the circumstances was great.
> Clive James sums it up best on the 1982 F1 review video when he talks
> about Piquet, Lauda and Villeneuve - "One of them was a new World
> Champion. One of them was an old World Champion back from the fiery
> furnace. And one of them deserved to be World champion, but didn't yet
> know that he never would be. It probably wouldn't have stopped him even
> if he did......"
> He was an incredible racer and an incredible SPIRIT, which I see as
> being just as big a factor. I can't ever picture Magny Cours being
> renamed the Circuit Alain Prost, for example :-)
> He'd definitely be in my top 10.
> --
> Cheers!
> Graeme Nash
> http://www.karisma1.demon.co.uk
> ICQ# 11257824
> 1998 Xoom GP2 League Champion
> Clive James sums it up best on the 1982 F1 review video when he talks
> about Piquet, Lauda and Villeneuve
But can we compare? Nuvolari, Fangio, Lauda, Schumacher etc were all *** for
a while but few ever raced eachother at the peak of their careers. That makes
Senna and Prost different. They were both superb drivers and there was little to
choose between them.
Cheers,
Paul
After one or two more days at the track with Gilles, I always made a point
of accompanying her to the track! <g>
I always enjoy your intelligent, informative contributions, so I have to
ask.
I'm intrigued. You admired him, in part, because he was a playboy? Like in
the sense that he played with women or perhaps in the sense that he played
with lots of different kinds of racing automobiles? Maybe its a British
expression with which I am not familiar <g>
> I always enjoy your intelligent, informative contributions, so I have to
> ask.
> >My emotional reaction to Clark...may be further influenced by the fact that
> >Clark was such a playboy.
> I'm intrigued. You admired him, in part, because he was a playboy? Like in
> the sense that he played with women or perhaps in the sense that he played
> with lots of different kinds of racing automobiles? Maybe its a British
> expression with which I am not familiar <g>
> > Paul...
> > I always enjoy your intelligent, informative contributions, so I have to
> > ask.
> > >My emotional reaction to Clark...may be further influenced by the fact that
> > >Clark was such a playboy.
> > I'm intrigued. You admired him, in part, because he was a playboy? Like in
> > the sense that he played with women or perhaps in the sense that he played
> > with lots of different kinds of racing automobiles? Maybe its a British
> > expression with which I am not familiar <g>
> I didn't mean so much that he played with women more that he was a fashion icon
> of the time - something that a 10-year old would readily pick up on. Clark used
> to hang around with the Carnaby Street set and his girlfriend was the
> super-model and actress, Jean Shrimpton. I remember quite a few pictures of them
> together - one car advertising picture with them both in a wood with a sporty
> looking but affordable car (I forget the model). Remember this was the swinging
> sixties and Jim Clark was one of the superstars of the time. Obviously the
> emotional reactions of a 10-year old are rather immature - I don't want to imbue
> Clark with qualities that the press may have heaped on him.
> Cheers,
> Paul
> Like Prost's, Senna's, Clark's etc? I'm not sure he would make it even
> then. In that case people like Mansell etc would have more of a claim,
> as would Jacques Villeneuve. Not too many people have combined Indy.
> F1 and Indianapolis.
