RACING DRIVER

Gilles Villeneuve

1950 - 1982

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Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve (French pronunciation: [ʒil vil.nœv]; 18 January 1950 – 8 May 1982) was a Canadian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1977 to 1982. Villeneuve was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1979 with Ferrari, and won six Grands Prix across six seasons. A racing enthusiast from an early age, Villeneuve started his career in snowmobile racing across his native province of Quebec. He soon progressed to open-wheel racing, winning the regional Formula Ford championship in 1973 before graduating to Formula Atlantic, where he won two Canadian Championships in 1976 and 1977, and the American Championship in 1976. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Gilles Villeneuve is the 12th most popular racing driver (up from 16th in 2019), the 19th most popular biography from Canada (up from 23rd in 2019) and the most popular Canadian Racing Driver.

Gilles Villeneuve is most famous for being a French-Canadian Formula One driver who won the World Drivers' Championship in 1977.

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Among RACING DRIVERS

Among racing drivers, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 12 out of 1,080. Before him are Juan Manuel Fangio, James Hunt, Nelson Piquet, Emerson Fittipaldi, Alberto Ascari, and Giuseppe Farina. After him are Keke Rosberg, Nigel Mansell, Ken Miles, Jackie Stewart, Jochen Rindt, and Roland Ratzenberger.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1950, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 17. Before him are Vicente del Bosque, Sahle-Work Zewde, Stevie Wonder, Jim Mattis, Goran Bregović, and Steve Wozniak. After him are Ed Harris, Robbie Coltrane, Néstor Kirchner, Jody Williams, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and William Sadler. Among people deceased in 1982, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 23. Before him are Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Vasily Chuikov, Karl von Frisch, Erving Goffman, Stanford Moore, and Louis Aragon. After him are Glenn Gould, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Barack Obama Sr., Hugo Theorell, Gala Dalí, and Georges Perec.

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In Canada

Among people born in Canada, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 19 out of 1,622. Before him are Frank Gehry (1929), Jim Carrey (1962), Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874), Michael J. Fox (1961), Erving Goffman (1922), and Jack L. Warner (1892). After him are Glenn Gould (1932), Margaret Atwood (1939), Saul Bellow (1915), Marshall McLuhan (1911), Richard E. Taylor (1929), and David Cronenberg (1943).

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Among RACING DRIVERS In Canada

Among racing drivers born in Canada, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 1. After him are Jacques Villeneuve (1971), Jacques Villeneuve (1953), George Eaton (1945), Lance Stroll (1998), Bill Brack (1935), Allen Berg (1961), Nicholas Latifi (1995), Alex Tagliani (1973), Greg Moore (1975), Robert Wickens (1989), and James Hinchcliffe (1986).

Canadian born Racing Drivers

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