Head Start (from Gilles Villeneuve)

Alain Prost: "Gilles always made the fastest starts. I thought he must have some kind of trick."

Prost was known as The Professor for his analytical approach to racing but Gilles too was a keen student of every facet of the game and studied continually how to play it better. While his flamboyant style of driving usually looked distinctly impromptu even primitive, he was methodical and detail-conscious in the extreme. On race day every move was calculated to provide maximum benefit.

"There's a tremendous feeling of anticipation before the start. I like to pay very close attention to the details of all the procedures of getting ready. The second-by-second ritual helps to get your mind working in an orderly way. The paddock gates are opened at a certain time, you have to get the car out and the gates close, you sit on the grid, and so on. I usually like to stay quiet as long as possible so I don't come out of the motorhome until the last minute. I want to spend as little time as possible sitting there doing nothing.

"Then I usually sit in the car because I want to get my mind cleared out for racing. The only people I want to talk to are members of my team. If you get out, people want to come around and slap you on the back and talk to you. They're mostly the inconsiderate fans who insist on talking or having their picture taken standing beside you. I stay in the car to avoid that - unless I have to go to the bathroom!

"When we start our engines the excitement really starts to build up. Even though I'm tucked down inside the car, all wrapped up in driving suit, helmet gloves and fireproof underwear, I'm fully aware of everything that's going on around me. The noise and colour are fantastic. I can almost feel my nerve ends tingling all over and the adrenalin is pumping through my body so fast, I'm almost shaking.

"I know some drivers say it's like being with a woman. I don't agree with that. The physical senses are greatly heightened for sure, but it's because of expectation of the race about to start. It's all mental condition. In a few seconds before the starting lights, everything in my mind seems to come together and all the senses start working - feeding in information just like a lot of different terminals will supply information to a central computer.

"The starting grid for a Formula One race is a very dangerous place to be. Sitting there, I'm always studying, trying to anticipate what might happen. I try to keep all sorts of alternatives in mind. I keep reviewing all the possibilities of what the people around me might do. I feel that if every eventuality has run through my mind, I'll be prepared to act instinctively if anything should go wrong.

"It helps if you're up near the front of the grid, because you can get away from potential trouble just by accelerating out of it. But when you're in the middle of the field, trouble can come at you from almost any direction. And if you've run everything through your mind, reflexes and instinct will help keep you out of trouble." *** To help him quickly leave behind potential trouble, Gilles had a head start on most of his rivals. In his road cars, from the earliest days in Berthierville, Gilles was a 'street racer.' Every stop sign or traffic light was a challenge to get away from as quickly as was humanly and mechanically possible. He honed the necessary qualities of concentration, anticipation, reaction, and co©ordination of the clutch, accelerator and gearlever functions to the highest degree. He was probably the only Grand Prix driver to have actually drag-raced and Gilles felt experience in conditioning himself to react to the lights gave him a big advantage. And he sought further ways to enlarge on that talent.

Others made practice starts by stopping then powering away on the circuit or at the pitlane exit, leaving strips of black rubber behind them. But Gilles took it one step further.

"They all say I'm reckless because before the race I go like hell, come to the place where I'm going to start, then slam on the brakes so I leave two big black marks on the track. But when I go to my place on the grid I put my tires on the black marks and when the race starts I have rubber on rubber for better traction."

Gilles was forever looking for the advantage, and while his great natural talent was always commented upon, few drivers concentrated more on developing their God©given attributes. Peripheral vision, the ability to see to either side as well as in front, was another focus of Gilles's attention. He needed glasses for reading and sometimes wore them, though few knew it and he preferred they didn't. He took pains to hide any signs of weakness. But he knew that exercising the muscles of the eyes could improve vision. And, typically, he was less interested in being able to read print more clearly than being able to gain sharper insights while sitting in a racing car.

In his snowmobiling days he found that conquering the visibility problems gave him a head start on winning. He developed the ability to discern shapes even in a maelstrom of blowing snow, sometimes by squinting or using only one eye. Maintaining this visual contact with his surroundings was essential sensory input necessary to maintain control of a sliding snowbmobile at 150 kph. And Gilles looked for ways to clarify and enlarge upon the view from his Ferrari.

He had an ophthalmologist in Montreal design him a set of exercises for his eyeballs and he practised in private at home. The apparatus consisted of a green ball suspended on an elastic band and two green circles, the same size as the ball, which represented the mirrors on his Ferrari. The ball was hung from the ceiling or suspended from a light fixture, with the green circles placed equidistant on either side of it on a wall. When the ball was set in motion Gilles would lie on the floor in front of it doing pushups, to simulate the motion of a T5 at speed, and count out loud as the ball swung from side to side between the circles. He moved his eyes to follow the ball, then focused on a circle, then back to the ball, then the other circle and so on, stretching the muscles in his eyes.

In this way Gilles estimated his field of peripheral vision was extended several degrees on either side to better supplement the function of the mirrors of his Ferrari. He was having to use his mirrors much more often in the "brouette" (wheelbarrow), as he was now calling the tardy T5, though often it seemed the mirrors were the only part of the car that worked. It could be extremely frustrating but Gilles started every race full of optimism and concentrated on remaining cool under fire.

"To some drivers the start of the race means they stop being sick and get themselves mentally organized. I don't have any physical or mental problems. As soon as the race starts I become cool. The concentration is very strong and the reflexes are ready, but now that the race is on I feel like I'm doing my job. The thoughts are flowing fast and smooth. At least as long as everything is running well.

"I'm always trying to brake deeper, yet get the power on out of a corner earlier. Apart from winning, of course, I'm aiming for consistency of lap times. Ideally I'd like to run a race with every lap as close to my fastest lap as it can possibly be.

"There's a tremendous sensation when everything is going well during a race. When things are clicking into place it's like a computerised ballet at high speed. Movements become precise and logical and you get the feeling that things are happening in their proper sequence.

"Mechanical problems can change all that. You develop a sense of feeling when the brakes start to go. Or there's a tyre wearing a bit thin. Or the suspension is going out of tune. Since your feelings extend right through the car, you become quickly aware of mechanical problems.

"You can imagine how frustrating it can be when everything is going along so beautifully then a problem crops up to completely change the rhythm of your race. I go from a mood of real satisfaction to one of frustration and despair. You can imagine why sometimes when we go into the pits with a lot of problems and everything is going very badly, we're not very friendly toward people who want to chat."


-excerpt from Gilles VILLENEUVE, The Life Of The Legendary Racing Driver available from amazon in hardcover, paperback and ebook editions