Tom German, de Ferran’s Team Penske race engineer in 2000-03, a stint that included setting the all-time qualifying lap speed record of 241.428mph at Fontana’s California Speedway
I think that was a little bit of a surprise when we qualified that well. It is always a challenging conversation going into qualifying because obviously you want to reduce the downforce, which consequently reduces the drag and gives you a little more top speed, that obviously makes the car a little bit harder to place, a little harder to handle, and finding that right balance of getting the speed and being able to get through the corner without scrubbing any crazy speed from having that balance. It’s a fine edge of getting everything lined up at the same time and producing that lap.
So we were on the fence there. Going into qualifying, we weren’t thinking, “Oh, we’re going to get a lap record and blow everybody away.” But as it turned out, that was the day that happened. The key thing is having a driver that also understands that the steering wheel is a brake. Every time you add a bit more lock, you’re putting a little more drag force from the tires into the car, and it just slows you down a little bit.
Having a driver that’s willing to explore low downforce at the same time that you’re trying to make the car the right level of neutral so it doesn’t scrub too much from the rear, doesn’t scrub too much from the front, is really the art of getting that right at the right point in time.
Will Buxton, journalist, Formula 1 presenter
Back in 2013 I was trying to get a charity night off the ground in Austin for the F1 weekend. Gil said he’d pop down if he could. As it turned out his flight was delayed and that was that, or so I thought. As the night was due to end, a murmur became a hum became a cheer from the back to the front of the room as the outline of a man pulling a wheelie suitcase appeared through the swiftly parting crowd.
With a beer in his other hand he’d already been handed by an awed fan, Gil took to the stage, having arrived come straight from the airport. He regaled the crowd with stories they nor I had ever heard — most unprintable. The roar for him when we finally had to end the show almost blew the windows out. That was Gil. His word was his bond. He kept promises, remembered his friends, made time for his fans and was adored by them as much for who he was as for what he could do behind the wheel. I loved him. I’ll miss him.
Justin Bell, open-wheel and sports car racer, broadcaster, one of de Ferran’s closest friends
What was spectacular for me in our Florida group — and thanks to him, I got exposed through to the Tony Kanaans and the all the Brazilian drivers down there — everybody was in this community. It was my first experience of the passion that especially the Brazilians have for life, and he would have a race on the weekend that was demanding and Gil was doing his racing and I was doing my own stuff in racing, but we would get together on a Monday and his house was the place to be.
It was as though the tension and the pressure the week before, and the stress of going 200 miles an hour-plus the day before, crash or win or whatever happened, and we would let loose on Monday. It was just this eye-opening thing for me, that you can be a leading athlete in your sport like he was, and basically be a total prat on a Monday and jump in the pool with our clothes on and drink and barbecue.
I was like, “Oh my God, this is how to do it!” He actually opened my eyes to how you can combine both sides of life and be successful, which is so funny because I’ve read a lot of people say, “I didn’t know Gil, I just knew him through his racing.” And I’ve got to say, if you just know him through his racing, you know half the man.
What was beautiful about it was we would rip each other apart in that way that only great loving friends can do. I’d walk in and go, “You’re just a fat bastard mate. What are you doing?” And he’d go, “It’s not that bad.” And I say, “You look like a flippin’ Buddha.” And we can talk like that. And…he would give [it back], and I would just laugh.
He would talk to you, and he would make you feel that was all he was interested in. Nothing else was distracting him; it was your issue or your subject or your problem or your decision you had to make. And he wouldn’t let it go. I’d be often like, “All right, I’m over this. I’ve thought this through enough. Now I’m gonna do it.” And he’d be like, “No, no, no. Have you considered taking this and doing that and cooking the recipe of life in a different way?”
Great man, great human, great dad, great friend, great driver.
Dario Franchitti, CART IndyCar Series and Indy Racing League rival from 1997-2003, Paul Stewart Racing and Acura ALMS stablemate
The first time we met, they put us all in a line and introduced us as the Paul Stewart Racing drivers of ’92. I would see Gil around the Paul Stewart factory and was slightly in awe of him at first. He would always spend a lot of time upstairs…with a lady who worked there called Angela. And he spent a lot of time around Angela’s desk and it all seemed to work out OK because they got married and had two incredible kids. That was my first introduction to Gil.
When I was having some struggles in Formula 3, Gil actually came and drove the car and spent a day trying to help me understand where I was going wrong. I was essentially overdriving the car, and it was very helpful. That was my first insight into his way of…not just driving a racing car, but thinking through driving a racing car, setting a race car up and all those things. That had a big effect on me in how I then approached things from then on, because he was so cerebral about it.
But I made the mistake when I first went to America, thinking because he was so such a deep thinker, that in some way he was maybe less than aggressive on the track. I made that mistake once because he could go toe to toe with the best of them as far as just aggression and race craft and lean on the line [with] bravery.
And that lap he did in Fontana — 241mph — man, the bravery. The bravery it took to do that was incredible. When you had that bravery, but that brain as well as the skill…man, he was hard to beat.
I’ll give you my final thought on Gil. It might have been the last time I saw him. Every year at Indy they put us old guys out on the parade with their families in the cars and we wave. And because Gil won in ’03 and I won in ’07, some times — most times, actually — we were nose to tail. Our families would take pictures of the de Ferrans and they’d take pictures of us.
We’d shout abuse each other. We’d blow kisses, and I think that was one of the last times I saw him. And then I saw him at the Goodwood Revival; we had a lovely time — [a bit of rivalry]. But that lasting impression of the four de Ferrans — Anna, Angela, Luke and Gil — waving to the crowd and then Gil turning around and waving at us, with that big old smile on his big old head. Yeah, that’s how I’ll remember him.