> This is interesting to those of us in the UK and Europe, where this
> sort of thing is pretty uch unknown. After all, Ferrari didn't retire
> the number 27 after Villeneuve's death. To be honest (and I accept I'm
> in a minority here), I don't really like this as a method of tribute -
> what would you do in F1 (even under the old-style numbering system) if
> the champion was killed? Retire number one?
and #3. Villeneuve was only #27 by chance (Ferrari inherited it from
Williams after Alan Jones won the championship for Williams in 1980 - the
teams just swapped numbers). Villeneuve was only #27 for the last 20
races of his short 68 race career.
1977 - #40 McLaren (1 race), #21 Ferrari (1 race), #11 Ferrari (1 race)
1978 - #12 Ferrari (16 races)
1979 - #12 Ferrari (15 races)
1980 - #2 (because Sheckter was 1979 champ for Ferrari) (14 races)
1981 - #27 Ferrari (15 races)
1982 - #27 Ferrari (5 races)
Plus, Villenueve, although his reputation has become almost mythic, was
nowhere near the icon that Earnhardt was. Gilles only won 6 races in his
career and never won the championship.
Don't get me wrong, I am a much bigger fan of Gilles Villeneuve than Dale
Earnhardt, just because I have always been a huge F1 fan and don't follow
NASCAR that closely. However, there is no denying that Earnhardt meant
much, much more to his discipline (7 time champion, the length of his
career, etc.). Plus, as you said, the numbering system is different in
NASCAR - drivers are more strongly identified with their numbers because
they don't change them based on the previous year's performance. Given
all that, I think that retiring his number (or giving it to Dale, Jr.)
would be a nice gesture.
Dave Ewing
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David A. Ewing
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