I well remember ’92, when Perry McCarthy was driving an excuse of an F1 car called an Andrea Moda. Well, he was supposed to be, but the team’s Judd engines had been detained by the freight forwarding agents for non-payment of debt…
Andrea Moda managed to borrow one from Brabham, but only one, which went into Roberto Moreno’s car.
Come Friday morning pre-qualifying (remember that?) poor old Perry, at a loose end, strode into the pitlane and, for the crowd, held aloft the Gilles tribute helmet he’d been intending to wear. They weren’t impressed and gave him the bird. Seems you have to be of a certain standard…
Leclerc most certainly is – with some of his on-the-limit poles at places like Monaco, Singapore and Baku, and the odd error here and there – very Villeneuve-esque. The problem was, nobody had informed the Villeneuve family about the plan. Melanie Villeneuve, Gilles’ daughter, manages his image rights and, with various Ferrari sponsors adorning the helmet, was upset and let her brother Jacques know about it.
The ’97 world champion got the message through to Leclerc, who took off the helmet and wore his standard one for FP3 on Saturday morning, before inviting Joann (Gilles’ widow) and Melanie to spend the weekend with Ferrari. Everything was smoothed over, Melanie saying that Leclerc had been very sweet about it and that she thought it was a nice tribute, while Jacques posted on Instagram, after receiving some online abuse: “It would have been preferable for these discussions and arrangements to take place before the weekend in a respectful and professional manner.”
All’s well that ends well, but the episode brought to mind an interview that ’79 world champion and Gilles’s former Ferrari team mate Jody Scheckter gave, in which he revealed, “I spent a year after he (Gilles) died working on his sponsorship deals, getting all the money I could for his family. I suppose I took it upon myself as my task. I had a cause and negotiated with Ferrari for a massive amount of money and got rather more than I really should have done, by putting pressure on them.”