RACING DRIVER

Gilles Villeneuve

1950 - 1982

Photo of Gilles Villeneuve

Icon of person Gilles Villeneuve

Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve (January 18, 1950 – May 8, 1982), known as Gilles Villeneuve (French pronunciation: ​[ʒil vilnœv]), was a Canadian racing driver, who spent six years in Grand Prix motor racing with Ferrari, winning six races and widespread acclaim for his performances. An enthusiast of cars and fast driving from an early age, Villeneuve started his professional career in snowmobile racing in his native province of Quebec. He moved into single seaters, winning the US and Canadian Formula Atlantic championships in 1976, before being offered a drive in Formula One with the McLaren team at the 1977 British Grand Prix. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Gilles Villeneuve has received more than 1,470,595 page views. His biography is available in 36 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 35 in 2019). Gilles Villeneuve is the 20th most popular racing driver (down from 18th in 2019), the 23rd most popular biography from Canada 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

  • 1.5M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 73.29

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 36

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.39

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.32

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Gilles Villeneuves by language


Among RACING DRIVERS

Among racing drivers, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 20 out of 888. Before him are Jackie Stewart, Jochen Rindt, Jim Clark, Keke Rosberg, Stirling Moss, and Graham Hill. After him are Jack Brabham, Nelson Piquet, Ronnie Peterson, Clay Regazzoni, Nigel Mansell, and Carlos Reutemann.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1950, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 15. Before him are Steve Wozniak, Vicente del Bosque, Bill Murray, Anne, Princess Royal, Ed Harris, and Narendra Modi. After him are Peter Gabriel, Richard Branson, Robbie Coltrane, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Gabriel Byrne, and Joe Hisaishi. Among people deceased in 1982, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 26. Before him are Glenn Gould, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Louis Aragon, Jiro Horikoshi, Gala Dalí, and Georges Perec. After him are Hans Selye, Hugh Everett III, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Helen of Greece and Denmark, E. H. Carr, and John Belushi.

Others Born in 1950

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Others Deceased in 1982

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In Canada

Among people born in Canada, Gilles Villeneuve ranks 23 out of 1,130. Before him are Michael J. Fox (1961), Saul Bellow (1915), Eric Berne (1910), Celine Dion (1968), David Cronenberg (1943), and Frederick Banting (1891). After him are William Shatner (1931), Maud Lewis (1903), Neil Young (1945), Paul Anka (1941), John Kenneth Galbraith (1908), and Willard Boyle (1924).

Others born in Canada

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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), Lance Stroll (1998), Bill Brack (1935), Nicholas Latifi (1995), George Eaton (1945), Allen Berg (1961), Robert Wickens (1989), and James Hinchcliffe (1986).

Canadian born Racing Drivers

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