RACING DRIVER

Gilles Villeneuve

1950 - 1982

Photo of Gilles Villeneuve

Icon of person Gilles Villeneuve

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. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Gilles Villeneuve has received more than 2,910,553 page views. His biography is available in 41 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 37 in 2019). Gilles Villeneuve is the 16th most popular racing driver (up from 20th in 2019), the 23rd most popular biography from Canada (up from 24th 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.

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.9M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 70.62

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 41

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.05

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.66

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among RACING DRIVERS

Among racing drivers, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 16 out of 1,080. Before him are Emerson Fittipaldi, Giuseppe Farina, Nelson Piquet, Carroll Shelby, Jackie Stewart, and Jochen Rindt. After him are Bruce McLaren, Ronnie Peterson, Helmut Marko, Keke Rosberg, Jacky Ickx, and Mario Andretti.

Most Popular Racing Drivers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1950, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 20. Before him are Jim Mattis, Steven Van Zandt, David Duke, Bill Murray, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and Anne, Princess Royal. After him are Joe Hisaishi, Néstor Kirchner, Mithun Chakraborty, Richard Branson, Zhang Yimou, and Peter Gabriel. Among people deceased in 1982, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 29. Before him are Karl von Frisch, Glenn Gould, Georges Perec, Hugh Everett III, John Belushi, and Hugo Theorell. After him are Jiro Horikoshi, William Giauque, Mikhail Suslov, Stanford Moore, Curd Jürgens, and Ivan Bagramyan.

Others Born in 1950

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1982

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In Canada

Among people born in Canada, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 23 out of 1,622. Before him are James Naismith (1861), Glenn Gould (1932), Eric Berne (1910), Willard Boyle (1924), Frederick Banting (1891), and Michael J. Fox (1961). After him are William Giauque (1895), Saul Bellow (1915), Neil Young (1945), Neil Peart (1952), Pierre Trudeau (1919), and William Shatner (1931).

Others born in Canada

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among RACING DRIVERS In Canada

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

Canadian born Racing Drivers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous