Zak Brown, McLaren Racing CEO, hired de Ferran for two stints to help turn their F1 team around
I think he is the only person where I have never heard anyone say anything negative about Gil de Ferran, anywhere. I’ve just not come across anyone who didn’t like Gil de Ferran. That was very much how the McLaren organization felt about him. He was able to get people to collaborate, communicate, open their thinking, trust them. Everybody from the senior management to the mechanics to the drivers, he just built trust and confidence.
When we brought (engineering director) Pat Fry back (for 2019), Gil played a huge role in that. I looked at our win (at Monza) in 2021, and a lot of people understand the lead times in Formula 1, but a lot of people don’t; our 2021 success was really owed to 2019 when you develop your 2020 car. In 2019, I had Pat Fry, Gil de Ferran, Pete Pedromo, and Andrea Stella leading the charge; they designed the car in ’19, which is what comes out in 2020. We’re back on the podium.
Then COVID hit and all that we did between ’20 and ’21 was put the Mercedes in the back of the car. The ’21 car was the same as the ’20 car, which was done in ’19. We go on to win in ’21, Gil’s moved out of the organization (by then), the people that get the credit in ’21 for winning, actually, that was 2019.
Then you come back and you look at our success the second half of this year. When did we bring Gil back? The end of ’22 to early ’23. And when did our car get good again? The middle of ’23. So. not a coincidence that Gil was there for our resurgence in 2019. And 2023, he was there when those cars and those people were coming together to develop the on-track product. ’21 happened in 2019 on Gil’s watch.
And that’s something I think, because he wasn’t on the pit wall in ’21 when we won, people think the people on the wall — which of course were big contributors to it [were the only ones to celebrate] but Gil was behind the scenes, instrumental in both of our comebacks here. I think we’re now on a great journey forward, and Gil’s been instrumental in that.
I can tell you, the racing team, we’re gonna celebrate Gil, and Gil is with us. He is a huge motivation for us moving forward, so we’re excited to go racing with Gil because the impact [he] has had on this team is going to carry us for a long time.
David Porteous, racing filmmaker from Canada
I was really sorry to hear about Gil. When I was a young kid, age 8 or so, I somehow ended up chatting with Gil at the Toronto IndyCar race. Super nice guy, and he gave me his email address! It was the early 1990s, so that was not a common thing a lot of people had. And for years he responded to my emails where I asked loads of racing questions or how his race weekend went.
At that age I felt like we were almost best friends, and any time I saw him at races in Toronto he was always super nice. Gil was always patient to reply to my questions, like how did he get started racing, asking him advice on how I might get into go karting or being a mechanic, what it’s really like going that fast, and so on. As you can imagine at that young age I felt super connected to the series, as if somehow I was involved in it, even by proxy.
It was probably about 10 years ago I decided to go back to try and retrieve all those many Gil emails, but unfortunately, the email server I used had deleted them.
Whenever I saw him in Toronto he was always kind with me and his fans. During those weekends as a kid, I used to go around asking drivers and mechanics for spare parts of the Indy cars as I collected them. Gil gave me a part of the underside of his Indy car and signed it. Though my dad probably wasn’t as thrilled about carrying this giant piece of Indy car around for the rest of the race day, Gil’s time for me really created so many memorable moments for me and made my connection with IndyCar.
His character also set the stage in terms of learning that even if you are famous, there isn’t an excuse to act like a jerk or to think that you’re more important than the little guy. That really had a positive impact on me. But even more importantly, I learned about patience and kindness. Not something you’d expect to learn at an IndyCar street circuit… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve randomly reflected on my interactions with Gil and how brought a smile to my face. I’m very grateful for those moments.
Simon Pagenaud, de Ferran Motorsports ALMS driver 2008-09
So we go testing and it was really fun. I’m going in, first day in the car, and I go out there blazing fire, going as hard as I can. I come back to the pit and Gil’s like, “Man, you didn’t waste any time, did you?” I said, “That’s why you hired me to do the job. I’m just gonna try as hard as I can.” And he says, ‘”OK.” He goes out and matches my time, comes back, and the debrief is just unfreaking-believable. I’m like, “F***, I know nothing about what I’m doing. This guy is just at a whole different level.”
That’s where it really started for me. Debriefing with engineers and starting the love of describing every single detail of the race car, the racetrack, the bumps, the traction control, the tires, the brakes, all the sensory things that you get as a race car driver, but until you have someone like Gil that describes in front of you, you just can’t put it in words.
Gil was able to do that, but in such an intelligent way, with a lot of emotion as well — because he was Brazilian — [so] the whole room would stop and listen. And he could keep the attention on him for three hours if you needed to, but he knew exactly at what point to stop and walk off, come back, and check on the work and if it was done.
Engineers always have a way to tell you they know better than you. Gil was able — he was an engineer already so he had that respect. He was able to always have the arguments to counter the engineers and often he was right and even engineers were learning from him, so it was incredible.
He was an open book. I can recall many dinners we had where I was just there, not eating the plate in front of me, just listening. It was fantastic.
He was like a dad to me. I was telling my dad, actually, we were talking about Gil, because Gil welcomed my parents in his family many times and was very, very family-oriented. His kids, Luke and Anna, they were everything to him. He did the same with me and brought me into the family with Angela. I was talking to my dad and I said, “You’re obviously a very big part of my life; I look at you as my main role model in life,” but, I said, “Gil had something you don’t have.”
I said, “You’re very pragmatic, and Gil was very pragmatic, but Gil is in my industry and understands exactly how things are supposed to be. He has some visions that you don’t have.” So I needed Gil on my side to grow into the human being that I am today. I think life is about the role models that you have, and you have pillars in your life. They take you a certain path, and you just follow their advice, their counsel. Every time I had doubts, every time I had moments of success, I would call Gil, no question. It would be an hour conversation, and hour-and-a-half conversation.
It is tough for me today, because it’s like losing a pillar of your life, a pillar of your foundation.