Gil de Ferran

Lore & Background

De Ferran began his career in kart racing in the 1980s, inspired by Emerson Fittipaldi. He won the Brazilian Formula Ford championship in 1987, raced in Formula Three from 1991, and won the British Formula Three title in 1992 with Paul Stewart Racing. He then competed in International Formula 3000 in 1993 and 1994, finishing fifth and third respectively. In 1993, he tested for the Footwork Arrows Formula One team but his session was compromised after hitting his head on a truck locker door. He moved to CART IndyCar in 1995 with Hall/VDS Racing, winning Rookie of the Year and his first race at Laguna Seca. After a win in 1996 at Cleveland, he joined Walker Racing in 1997, finishing runner-up to Alex Zanardi. In 1999, he won at Portland, then signed with Team Penske for 2000. On 28 October 2000, he set the fastest closed-course qualifying lap at California Speedway. He won the CART championship in 2000 and 2001, and the 2003 Indianapolis 500 despite a broken back suffered earlier that year. He retired after 2003, winning his final race at Texas Motor Speedway. He later became sporting director for BAR-Honda and McLaren, and returned to racing as a driver/owner in the American Le Mans Series with de Ferran Motorsports, finishing runner-up in LMP1 in 2009. He merged his team with Luczo Dragon Racing in 2010, but the team closed in 2011. De Ferran died on 29 December 2023 from a heart attack while driving at a private event in Florida.

In Their Own Story

The wind off the lake was cold that May morning, the kind that makes your fingers go numb on the steering wheel even through three layers of gloves. De Ferran sat in the Panoz 01, number 99, and listened to the engine idle in the pit stall — a low, steady Ford-Cosworth thrum that he had helped tune over months of testing. Around him, the garages were a symphony of impact wrenches and shouted radio calls. He did not look up. He was checking the pressure readings one more time, because the car was right, and a right car in his hands did not need a hero. It needed a driver who would not let it become wrong. When the green flag dropped and the field surged onto the backstretch, he settled into the rhythm. Not pushing. Not yet. Five hundred miles. He had done the math before, in the simulator, in the data, in the long Tuesday nights in the shop. He knew where the traffic would bunch, where the fuel would run low, where the tyres would start to step. And so, lap after lap, he drove the car the way it was built to be driven, and when the white flag waved, the Panoz crossed the line with the kind of quiet certainty that made the grandstands erupt not in shock, but in the deep, satisfied roar of a job done perfectly.

Reader's Guide

Gil de Ferran's career highlights include two CART championships (2000, 2001), an Indianapolis 500 win (2003), and a runner-up finish in the American Le Mans Series LMP1 class (2009). He set the fastest closed-course qualifying lap in history in 2000. He also served as sporting director for BAR-Honda and McLaren Formula One teams.

Did You Know?

• De Ferran set the fastest closed-course qualifying lap ever at 241.428 mph in 2000 at California Speedway.
• He won the 2003 Indianapolis 500 with a broken back sustained earlier that season.
• In 2013, Autosport magazine named him one of the 50 greatest drivers to have never raced in Formula One.
• He was born in Paris, France, on 11 November 1967.