Gilles Villeneuve

Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve (born 18th January, 1950 in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian former racing driver.

His son, Jacques also drove in Formula One - winning the Driver's Championship in 1997 and racing as recently as 2014.

The Île Notre-Dame Circuit was renamed the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in his honour in the mid-1980s.

Formula One

1976-1977: Kojima and Ferrari

Villeneuve made his Formula One debut at the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix for the unfancied Kojima Engineering squad alongside Masahiro Hasemi.

In the wet of Fuji Speedway, the KE007 proved a worthy steed for both drivers - with Villeneuve taking an eleventh place finish in the race.

Villeneuve rejected a bid to race full-time in F1 from American outfit Team Penske and returned to Formula Atlantic in 1977.

Villeneuve entered the BRDC International Trophy in 1977 with the Kojima squad and impressed even further - taking a fifth place in the race after running ahead of the two works Renault cars before they retired.

His Kojima heroics impressed those at Maranello, who saw fit to put him in one of the four works Ferrari cars at the inaugural Trofeo Dino Ferrari. In a solid outing, he would be denied a 3rd place finish after suffering mechanical failure on the last lap. This performance, along with his Kojima drives, put Villeneuve at the top of Enzo Ferrari's shortlist to replace Patrick Depailler for 1978. In direct competition with young Italian driver Elio de Angelis, Villeneuve would make his World Championship debut at the 1977 Canadian Grand Prix, replacing Depailler.

Many corners of the paddock called for Villeneuve to join F1 full time, and he began working on his schedule in the winter of 1977.

Complete Career Results

Complete Formula One Results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Points	WDC
1976	Kojima Engineering	Kojima KE-007	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL	MON	SOV	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	CAN	USA	JPN 11		0	NC
1977	Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	Ferrari 312T2	Ferrari 015 3.0 F12	ARG	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL	MON	FRA	TUS	SOV	GBR	NED	GER	AUT	ITA	CAN 1	USA	JPN	10	10th