“Gilles chewed through tyres like kids chew sweets”
I’m sorry that you had to read all that noise (left) from my bearded colleague. He hasn’t been well…. To suggest that Gilles Villeneuve was a World champion is just plain wrong. John Watson told me once that Villeneuve “needed to be fastest at every corner on every lap”. Championships aren’t won by such efforts. Think back to Villeneuve’s early days: speed tempered by accidents. In 1973, he dominated the Quebec region Formula Ford series by winning seven out of 10 races before he fractured his leg and was out for a month.
His F1 debut at Silverstone in 1977 was punctuated by spins aplenty and in 1977, just after Ferrari had signed him for the following season on the recommendation of Canadian Walter Wolf, he crashed in Fuji and cart-wheeled over the barriers. Two spectators were killed although Villeneuve walked away unhurt.
He spun out of the 1978 Brazilian GP and collided with Clay Regazzoni at Long Beach, but his only other accident-related retirement was at Monaco when a tyre let go. Perhaps the accident strike rate wasn’t so bad…
In 1979, not one of his retirements were down to a crash, but the most memorable retirement was his Dutch one as he dragged the remains of his car to the pits, tyre flailing then wheel hanging off then sparks flying then suspension wrecked.
All those people who bang on about his determination or commitment rather miss the point that the car was knackered and his race was over. What did that achieve?
Accidents came through 1980 and ’81, perhaps not regularly, but there was always that expectation that he would trip over the edge, imminently. Like Silverstone in 1981 when his zealotry at the Woodcote Chicane triggered mayhem behind and sent cars scattering in avoidance as his tyre-smoking rotation wiped out some of his pursuers.
One common factor through his career is the number of times he had to pit for tyres: four times in 1978, five in 1980 (would have been six had a puncture not sent him off the road) and twice in 1981. Yeah, great, isn’t Villeneuve spectacular? Isn’t he amazing to watch? Brilliant. He chewed tyres like children chew sweets and lost who knows how many races and opportunities on the back of it.
Didier Pironi was better. He a World champion that never was, but I will give credit to Gilles Villeneuve for one thing: 40 years on, we are still talking about him.