Gil de Ferran

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gil de Ferran
de Ferran won two CART championships in 2000 and 2001.
Nationality	Brazil
Date of Birth	November 11, 1967 (1967-11-11) (age 40)
Place of Birth	Paris, France
Indy Racing League IndyCar Series
Years active	2001-2003
Teams	Penske Racing
Starts	31
Wins	5
Poles	5
Best finish	2nd in 2003

CART Championship Car
Years active	1995-2001
Teams	Hall Racing Walker Racing Penske Racing
Starts	129
Wins	7
Poles	16
Best finish	1st in 2000 & 2001
Previous series
1993-1994 1991-1992	Formula 3000 British Formula Three
Championship titles
2000, 2001 1992	CART World Series Champion British Formula Three Champion
Awards
2003	Indianapolis 500 winner

Gil de Ferran (born November 11, 1967) in Paris, France to Brazilian parents, is a racing driver. De Ferran was the 2000 and 2001 Champ Car champion driving for the Penske Honda Team and the winner of the 2003 Indianapolis 500.

Inspired by the success of fellow Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi, de Ferran began his career in kart racing in the early 1980s. He graduated to Formula Ford level in 1987 and Formula Three in 1991. De Ferran won the British Formula Three Championship in 1992, scoring seven wins in the process. 1993 and 1994 were spent driving for Paul Stewart Racing in Formula 3000. De Ferran finished fourth in the series in 1993 and third in 1994.

At the end of 1994 de Ferran was invited to test a Champ Car by the Jim Hall team. Despite the worries of the team's sponsor Pennzoil that de Ferran was not famous enough name for their car, the team was sufficiently impressed to offer de Ferran a drive for 1995. With no top-line Formula One drive available de Ferran took up the offer to drive in America.

De Ferran won the rookie of the year award in 1995 by finishing 14th. He scored his first Champ Car win in the last race of the year at Laguna Seca.

In 1996 de Ferran was a consistent challenger but only scored one win, at Cleveland. This win was the last for veteran car owner and driver Jim Hall who retired from the sport at the end of 1996. Hall's retirement also spelled the end of the Pennzoil Hall team. Despite rumours that he would be a driver for the new Stewart Grand Prix Formula One team, de Ferran stayed in America for 1997, joining the Derrick Walker/Valvoline team.

De Ferran finished 1997 as runner-up to Alex Zanardi with ten top-ten finishes but failed to score a single victory. He looked on course to win the season opener at Homestead but was knocked out of the lead by a lapped driver. At Portland he lost out to PacWest Racing's Mark Blundell in the closest finish in Champ Car history.

The expected championship challenge never materialized in 1998, unreliability, driver errors and the inferior performance of the Goodyear tires compared to the Firestone tires all combined to leave de Ferran 12th in the standings, again with no wins in the year.

In 1999 the breakthrough finally came as de Ferran beat Juan Pablo Montoya at Portland to take his first win since mid-1996 and the Walker team's first since early-1995. However that victory would be the end of an era as Goodyear and Valvoline both left Champ Car racing at the end of 1999. De Ferran signed for a ride with Penske Racing racing for 2000, partnering highly rated Canadian Greg Moore. When Moore was killed in the last race of 1999, the seat went to fellow Brazilian Hélio Castroneves.

The Penske years saw de Ferran finally fulfil the promise of his earlier career with two Champ Car titles and an Indy 500 victory. His analytical approach earned him comparisons with Penske's first driver, Mark Donohue. He also garnered praise for his politeness and integrity: when Penske controversially switched to the Indy Racing League in 2002, he did not criticize the move even though it meant he could not defend his Champ Car title. Once in the IRL he also did not deride the rival Champ Car series like Al Unser, Jr. and others who had switched sides had done.

Following his Indianapolis triumph de Ferran decided to retire at the end of 2003. He won his final race, although the moment was soured by a terrifying crash during the race that left fellow Indy winner Kenny Bräck seriously injured.

In 2005, he moved to BAR Honda Formula One as their Sports Director. He resigned from this position in July 2007 after becoming "increasingly uncomfortable" with the team.^[1]

On January 29, 2008 de Ferran announced that he will return to the cockpit and field a factory-backed LMP2 class Acura ARX-01b prototype in the American Le Mans Series. The team will begin racing sometime before the mid-way point of the 2008 season.^[2]

De Ferran currently lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his English wife Angela and children Anna (born 1995) and Luke (born 1997).

Contents 1 Champ Car career results 2 Complete Champ Car Results 3 Indy Racing League career results 4 Complete IndyCar Results 4.1 IndyCar 5 Indianapolis 500 results 6 External links 7 References

[edit] Champ Car career results

Year	Team	Wins	Points	Championship Finish
1995	Hall/VDS Racing	1	56	14th
1996	Hall/VDS Racing	1	104	6th
1997	Walker Racing	0	162	2nd
1998	Walker Racing	0	67	12th
1999	Walker Racing	1	108	8th
2000	Penske Racing	2	168	1st
2001	Penske Racing	2	199	1st

[edit] Complete Champ Car Results

Yr	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Rank	Points
1995	Jim Hall	MIA Ret	SUR 16	PHX 11	LBH 27	NAZ 19	IND Ret	MIL 8	DET 16	POR 10	ROA Ret	TOR 16	CLE 14	MIC 12	MDO Ret	NHA 7	VAN 2	LAG 1					14th	56
1996	Jim Hall	MIA 2	RIO 10	SUR Ret	LBH 5	NAZ Ret	500 9	MIL 9	DET 3	POR 2	CLE 1	TOR 18	MIC Ret	MDO 17	ROA Ret	VAN Ret	LAG Ret						6th	104
1997	Walker	MIA Ret	SUR 5	LBH Ret	NAZ 4	RIO 11	GAT 3	MIL 7	DET 3	POR 2	CLE 2	TOR Ret	MIC 3	MDO 6	ROA 3	VAN 3	LAG 5	FON 6					2nd	162
1998	Walker	MIA 7	MOT 3	LBH Ret	NAZ 4	RIO Ret	GAT 6	MIL Ret	DET 3	POR Ret	CLE 6	TOR Ret	MIC Ret	MDO 9	ROA Ret	VAN Ret	LAG Ret	HOU Ret	SUR 14	FON Ret			12th	67
1999	Walker	MIA 6	MOT 2	LBH 6	NAZ 15	RIO 10	GAT Ret	MIL 3	POR 1	CLE 2	ROA Ret	TOR Ret	MIC Ret	DET Ret	MDO 6	CHI 13	VAN Ret	LAG 6	HOU 17	SUR Ret	FON 9		8th	108
2000	Penske	MIA 6	LBH 7	RIO Ret	MOT 9	NAZ 1	MIL 12	DET 9	POR 1	CLE Ret	TOR 5	MIC Ret	CHI 3	MDO 2	ROA Ret	VAN 5	LAG 2	GAT 8	HOU 3	SUR Ret	FON 3		1st	168
2001	Penske	MTY 2	LBH 3	TEX Canc	NAZ Ret	MOT Ret	MIL 7	DET 6	POR 13	CLE 4	TOR 14	MIC Ret	CHI 3	MDO 2	ROA 5	VAN 2	LAU 8	ROC 1	HOU 1	LAG 3	SUR 4	FON 6	1st	199

2 championships, 7 victories

[edit] Indy Racing League career results

Year	Team	Wins	Points	Championship Finish
2001	Penske Racing	0	46	28th
2002	Penske Racing	2	443	3rd
2003	Penske Racing	3	489	2nd

0 championships, 5 victories

[edit] Complete IndyCar Results

[edit] IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
2002	Penske	HMS 2	PHX 2	FON 4	NZR 3	INDY 10	TXS 16	PPIR 1	RIR 2	KAN 5	NSH 2	MIS 5	KTY 21	STL 1	CHI Ret	TX2		3rd	443
2003	Penske	HMS 2	PHX Ret	MOT	INDY 1	TXS 8	PPIR 3	RIR 3	KAN 3	NSH 1	MIS 7	STL 3	KTY 9	NZR 4	CHI 12	FON 15	TX2 1	2nd	489

[edit] Indianapolis 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish
1995	Reynard	Ilmor-Mercedes	19th	29th
2001	Dallara	Oldsmobile	5th	2nd
2002	Dallara	Chevrolet	14th	10th
2003	G-Force	Toyota	10th	1st

[edit] External links

• Gil de Ferran's official website

[edit] References

Sporting positions
Preceded by Rubens Barrichello	British Formula Three Champion 1992	Succeeded by Kelvin Burt
Preceded by Jacques Villeneuve	CART Rookie of the Year 1995	Succeeded by Alex Zanardi
Preceded by Juan Pablo Montoya	CART Series Champion 2000-2001	Succeeded by Cristiano da Matta
Preceded by Hélio Castroneves	Indianapolis 500 Winner 2003	Succeeded by Buddy Rice

v • d • e CART/CCWS Drivers' Champions (1979) Rick Mears · (1980) Johnny Rutherford · (1981–82) Rick Mears · (1983) Al Unser · (1984) Mario Andretti · (1985) Al Unser · (1986–87) Bobby Rahal · (1988) Danny Sullivan · (1989) Emerson Fittipaldi · (1990) Al Unser Jr · (1991) Michael Andretti · (1992) Bobby Rahal · (1993) Nigel Mansell · (1994) Al Unser Jr · (1995) Jacques Villeneuve · (1996) Jimmy Vasser · (1997–98) Alex Zanardi · (1999) Juan Pablo Montoya · (2000–01) Gil de Ferran · (2002) Cristiano da Matta · (2003) Paul Tracy · (2004–07) Sébastien Bourdais

v • d • e Indianapolis 500 winners Four-time A. J. Foyt · Al Unser, Sr. · Rick Mears Three-time Louis Meyer · Wilbur Shaw · Mauri Rose · Johnny Rutherford · Bobby Unser Two-time Tommy Milton · Bill Vukovich · Rodger Ward · Gordon Johncock · Emerson Fittipaldi · Arie Luyendyk · Al Unser, Jr. · Hélio Castroneves One-time Harroun · Dawson · Goux · Thomas · DePalma · Resta · Wilcox · Chevrolet · Murphy · Corum · Boyer · DePaolo · Lockhart · Souders · Keech · Arnold · Schneider · Frame · Cummings · Petillo · Roberts · Davis · Robson · Holland · Parsons · Wallard · Ruttman · Sweikert · Flaherty · Hanks · Bryan · Rathmann · Jones · Clark · Hill · Andretti · Donohue · Sneva · Sullivan · Rahal · Villeneuve · Lazier · Cheever · Bräck · Montoya · de Ferran · Rice · Wheldon · Hornish · Franchitti · Dixon