The first image that comes to mind of Gil de Ferran is the impressive amount of mischief contained in the corners of his mouth. It’s where that wry smile was formed.
He’d see you from afar and one side of his face would react, almost involuntarily. It couldn’t be helped or stopped. And this wasn’t a smile where both sides rose uniformly; with de Ferran, it was usually a raised corner and a raised eyebrow, signals both that something funny — and at my expense — was on the way.
“I see you’re eating well,” was a favorite line he’d uncork once he got within earshot. And I loved it.
Such things were never said with malice. Not with one of the kindest people to grace our sport. With de Ferran, there was an expectation that any of the grief he would give would be returned, and that’s where his playful side — the roots of that mischievous smile — made it hard not to love the professorial Brazilian.
As a community, we’ve been shaken by de Ferran’s death. This has been a punch to the soul.
Taken at 56, his relative youth was the first factor that was nigh on impossible to process. Once his loss was accepted, the grand place he held within so many people in the sport — as a friend, confidant, and fountain of wisdom — became the next aspect to mourn. There’s been rejoicing, as well.
An unfathomable amount of appreciation and gratitude has been expressed for the two-time CART IndyCar Series champion, Indianapolis 500 winner, sports car team owner, sporting director and advisor to Formula 1 teams, and consultant and visionary whose incredible blend of technical and interpersonal skills enriched every racing organization he touched. His unwavering dedication to his wife Angela and the raising of their kids Anna and Luke is another area where he served as a massive influence to others in our busy sport.
And in that spirit of giving de Ferran his flowers, a number of his closest friends, teammates, colleagues, and more came together to share their thoughts about the man in ways that reveal the immense depth and humanity.
Here’s a collection of tales about Gil de Ferran, in both written and audio form. I hope you enjoy.
Randy Bernard, IndyCar CEO, 2010-12
The loss of Gil de Ferran hits me particularly hard. Gil was far too young to pass away and he was definitely someone you loved once you met him. He was a true gentleman and a class act.
I selected Gil to be on my ICONIC committee at IndyCar to help develop the car for the future. Gil was very passionate about this and Gil, Tony Purnell and I toured Europe meeting with car manufacturers and F1 teams. It was quite a grueling trip, but so worth it. We had several goals; first, to see if any manufacturers were interested in coming to IndyCar since we only had one powertrain with Honda at the time.
We were wanting to talk with CEOs to determine the fuel source of the future and we quickly learned every manufacturer had their own ideas — natural gas, diesel, ethanol… We also wanted to directly hear from them about what would excite them in racing to possibly move into our series. Gil was a racing legend, so the time and attention they gave us because of him was something I will never forget. I have two memories that stand out during that time which I think about often.
We were in Verano de Melegari, Italy, meeting with Gian Paolo Dallara, a legend in developing race cars. Mr. Dallara was also engineering cars like Bugatti, Maserati and Lamborghini. He was honored to have Gil at his headquarters and first we spent some time in Mr. Dallara’s simulator that he was partnered on with Ferrari. Then he proceeded to give us a very private tour showing us cars he was developing. One in particular was a street car he was building that he wanted to call “Dallara.” There was only one of them in the world and didn’t even have its skin on yet. It was a very powerful car and Gil was like a kid in a candy store talking about it with Mr. Dallara.
Mr. Dallara asked his team to move it to his private racetrack across the road because he wanted Gil to drive it. Gil was elated! This was like asking an astronaut if he wanted to go to space. We went across the road and Mr. Dallara asked if I wanted to ride shotgun with Gil, and of course I wanted to. We put on our race suits and Gil took it out on the track for four or five laps. He came back in and needed to put some tape on his helmet as a visor to keep the sun out of his eyes.
We took it back out and after four or five more laps, he looked over at me with a thumbs-up and pounced on it. We made a couple more laps before something went terribly wrong. We started spinning out of control until we hit the wall! Yes, we did a lot of damage to the car while Mr. Dallara watched. Gil was so apologetic, but Mr. Dallara just chuckled. You could see he had so much appreciation for Gil and not another word was ever said about it. On the other hand, I brought it up often!