Amid the jubilation surrounding Michael Schumacher’s superb win in the Canadian GP I wonder if any Ferraristas spared a thought for Jacques Villeneuve, suffering yet another retirement due to mechanical failure, adding to his dismal season and poor record at the Isle de Notre Dame circuit?

His record there is ironic as the circuit was renamed after his late father, the legendary Gilles, following his death in 1982. This was made even more poignant as it was 25 years since Gilles won the first GP held at the new circuit in his 312 T3, his first F1 victory in his first full season for the Prancing Horse. He had made his debut for the team at the previous year’s Canadian GP, replacing Niki Lauda, who had withdrawn following the sacking of his mechanic Ermanno Cuoghi, who later followed the Champion to Brabham.

The Lotus 79 generally outclassed Ferrari in 1978, this first true ground-effect car driven to the Championship by Mario Andretti, another Ferrari favourite. However Ferrari still took 5 wins with Carlos Reutemann winning 4 GPs, in addition to Villeneuve’s one, helping them to second place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Qualifying in Canada was very close with Jean-Pierre Jarier (Lotus) taking pole by one-hundredth of a second from Jody Scheckter's Wolf with Gilles Villeneuve two-tenths behind them. Reutemann was not competitive, qualifying 11th.

It had rained intermittently throughout practice where the Michelin rain tyres demonstrated their superiority, but 25 years ago Ferrari were on them. The weather was cool and overcast on race day as thousands of fans crammed onto the island to see Villeneuve in action.

At the start Jarier made the best start to lead Scheckter, Jones (Williams) and Villeneuve into the first corner. Further around on the first lap Scheckter (Wolf) drifted wide and Jones dived into second place. But Jarier was in the lead and pulling away.

Further back Andretti and Watson engaged in a lively battle for fifth place, the American keen to get ahead of the Brabham. On the sixth lap Andretti made a move and the two cars collided and spun. Patrick Depailler (Tyrrell) moved to fifth but he soon had to pit for new tyres and so Reutemann took the place. On lap 18 Jones began to drop back with a slow puncture and he was soon overtaken by Scheckter and Villeneuve and the Canadian then moved to second. But Jarier was almost 30 seconds ahead and Villeneuve had little chance of catching him.

But on lap 50 Jarier went into the pits with no brakes. A fault was found in the system and the car was retired.

Villeneuve was thus left in the lead and duly won, to the delight of the local crowd. Scheckter followed him home with Reutemann third in his Ferrari swan song, Patrese (Arrows) fourth, Depailler (Tyrell) fifth and Daly sixth for the tiny Ensign team, the Minardi of their day.

In addition to Villeneuve’s win, the race was full of significance for Ferrari fans, of the 28 drivers entered, no less than 9 had driven, or would drive for the Scuderia!

Reutemann was in his last season for Ferrari, replaced in 1979 by second-placed Scheckter, who of course, was their last Champion before Schumacher in 2000. Didier Pironi finished 7th in a Tyrrell and later vied for the Championship in the terrible 1982 season before crashing at Hockenheim, causing horrific injuries to his legs. Villeneuve, killed at Zolder, was replaced by Patrick Tambay, who finished 8th for McLaren. The gentlemanly French driver later did much to rebuild Ferrari morale in that dreadful year, as did Andretti with his 3rd place, guest driving at Monza.

Double Champion Lauda retired his Brabham-Alfa, retiring himself the following year, before returning to take his 3rd Championship for McLaren in 1984. He would later return to Ferrari as a consultant, before his services were dispensed with by the Schumacher alliance and to F1 again at Jaguar, before being fired at the end of 2002.

Clay Regazzoni failed to qualify his Shadow, but would enjoy an Indian summer at Williams in 1979 winning the British GP, before his career was ended in a crash in an Ensign at Long Beach in 1980. Also amongst the non-qualifiers was Arturo Merzario (Merzario), the little, ever-cheerful Italian, who drove for Ferrari in 1973, one of their bad periods in between the successful Foghieri and Montezelmo/Lauda eras.

Of more general interest, of the 16 teams who entered the 1978 race, only 3 - Ferrari, McLaren and Williams would still be racing 25 years later – 4 if you include Renault, although the present team has little in common with the factory effort of the time. You might equally include Tyrrell, who metamorphed into BAR, Jacques Villeneuve’s team, which brings us neatly back to where we started.

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