Gilles Villeneuve was born in Quebec in 1950 and learned car control racing snowmobiles, which in the long Canadian winters he did well enough to become a champion. He moved to Formula Atlantic, beat a visiting James Hunt in a race at Trois-Rivières in 1976, and Hunt told McLaren about him.
After a single Grand Prix for McLaren in 1977 he was signed by Ferrari, and Enzo Ferrari adored him. He was not the most consistent driver of his time, and some of his early accidents were serious, but no one drove a car closer to its limit or further past it. He won six Grands Prix, all for Ferrari, the first at his home race in Montreal in 1978.
In 1979 he could have been champion. He followed his teammate Jody Scheckter home at Monza as team orders required, and Scheckter took the title. The same summer, at Dijon, he fought René Arnoux for second place over the last laps, wheel to wheel, touching repeatedly — a battle still replayed as the purest duel Formula One has produced.
His end came from the same place. At Imola in April 1982, his teammate Didier Pironi passed him on the last lap in defiance of what Villeneuve believed was an agreement between them. Villeneuve never spoke to him again. Two weeks later, in the final minutes of qualifying at Zolder, he struck the back of a slower car at high speed and was killed.
The circuit in Montreal carries his name. His son Jacques won the world title in 1997.
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