Villeneuve quickly established himself as a driver to watch out for very early in his Formula 1 career and certainly made quite an impact on his debut in 1977.
He was driving at the fearsome Silverstone circuit for McLaren, driving an older car than the team’s two regular drivers James Hunt and Jochen Mass.
We've turned the #BritishGP clock back to #OnThisDay in 1977 & Gilles Villeneuve's F1 debut with McLaren. The rest, they say, is history. pic.twitter.com/8DVE7Va66X
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) July 16, 2017
The Canadian qualified ninth for his first F1 race, splitting the other McLaren drivers – quite an achievement – but he didn’t have the smoothest of races.
Villeneuve ended up finishing 11th after a temperate gauge problem delayed him for two laps, but despite the far from ideal result, he’s still shown what he could do.
With the Sunday of the 2017 British GP marking 40 years since his debut, McLaren reflected on the performance with a brilliant video.
