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Flying high

10. Dec 2021 
by Guillaume Alvarez
5707 views

When the “Little Prince” was flying high.

This particular image, is the kind I enjoy the most as a true race fanatic. Why is that ? It’s because it is different, because it is not related to any particular sporting event, but it catches the eye and it makes you curious. What is Gilles Villeneuve exactly doing there ? Where and when has this picture been taken ? In which context ?

The story goes back to Nov 22 1981, just a month after Nelson Piquet and Brabham had captured the world title on the parking of the Caesars Palace Hotel at Las Vegas.

Far from the billboards of the Strip, we find the Scuderia Ferrari and it’s star driver on the tarmac of the military airport of Istrana, situated next to the city of Trevisio, in the North of Italy.

The Canadian has been invited by the Rombo magazine for a very special test of his Ferrari 126 CK. The same car, with its 1.5L V6 Turbo engine and 580 bhp, with which he won in spectacular fashion at Monaco and at Jarama.

This time, no Ligier, Williams or Renault to compete against but a … F104 Starfighter belonging to the Italian Air Force for a high speed duel on a one kilometer runway.

“The Little Prince” won this demonstration convincingly by asking his mechanics to remove his rear wing in order to generate more straight line speed. It should be mentioned that the jet was obliged to carry additional weight and open it’s flaps for security reasons, due to persistant fog on the runway.

Villeneuve was not the only F1 driver present that day. The newly crowned World Champion Nelson Piquet in his Brabham BT49, and Bruno Giacomelli in the Alfa Romeo 179C/2, also tried their luck against the F104. For the record, it’s the Ferrari driver who clocked the best time of the three in 16″55 to 17″45 for the Brazilian and 17″75 for the Italian.

The story doesn’t end there, because 7 years later the Italian authorities decided to offer the plane to the Scuderia. The plane has been painted in red and wears the number 4-27 (4 for the 4th Stormo, and 27 for Gilles) and sits proudly on the Fiorano test track, not far from the farm of the legendary Commendatore.

 

Source: DR

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