Ferrari on 1 July: Gilles Villeneuve’s Dijon duel and French GP wins
1 July is associated with one of Formula 1’s most memorable battles: Gilles Villeneuve’s duel with René Arnoux at the 1979 French Grand Prix. Their contest at Dijon-Prenois ended with the Ferrari driver taking second place.
The date also includes French Grand Prix victories for Peter Collins, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen, bringing together several generations of Ferrari success in France.
July 1 in Ferrari Formula 1 history
Explore Ferrari Grand Prix results, qualifying and Sprint sessions, driver birthdays, remembrance dates and selected milestones connected with this day.
Ferrari Grands Prix held on July 1
Race, qualifying, Sprint and Ferrari driver biographical dates are generated from the locally processed F1DB dataset. Session anniversaries are shown only when an explicit session date is available in the source. Selected non-race Ferrari milestones are curated separately from Ferrari sources. Historical shared-car result rows are preserved without inventing additional Grand Prix starts.
1979: Gilles Villeneuve holds on to second at Dijon
Gilles Villeneuve and René Arnoux repeatedly exchanged positions during the closing laps of the French Grand Prix. Their close racing became the defining image of the afternoon, with Gilles Villeneuve ultimately finishing ahead.
The battle was for second place. Jean-Pierre Jabouille won the race for Renault, while Jody Scheckter finished seventh in the other Ferrari.
2007: a Ferrari one-two at Magny-Cours
Kimi Räikkönen won the French Grand Prix on 1 July 2007, with Felipe Massa finishing second. The result gave Ferrari a one-two during the season in which Kimi Räikkönen would become Drivers’ World Champion.
Michael Schumacher had also won at Magny-Cours on this date in 2001, with Rubens Barrichello taking third place.
Earlier French success and a later Austrian podium
Peter Collins led Eugenio Castellotti home in a Ferrari one-two at the 1956 French Grand Prix. That result gives the date a winning Ferrari connection extending well before the Dijon duel.
In 2018, the Austrian Grand Prix took place on 1 July, with Kimi Räikkönen finishing second and Sebastian Vettel third.
Explore the driver behind the famous Dijon battle in our Gilles Villeneuve statistics, or select another date in the Ferrari On This Day calendar.
