Like a fairy tale: Gilles Villeneuve’s first victory at home | F1 Canada 1978. Gilles Villeneuve claimed his first Formula 1 victory at the 1978 Canadian Grand Prix.

Next weekend, Formula 1 will return to Montréal for the fifty-fourth edition of the Canadian Grand Prix.

On this occasion, let’s take a dive into the past and relive one of the most thrilling races in history: the 1978 Grand Prix.

Gilles’ first: the story
Arriving in his homeland, Gilles Villeneuve was about to take part in his nineteenth Formula 1 Grand Prix, with no idea of what Sunday had in store for him.

In qualifying, the home hero went no further than third place, just over two-tenths behind Jarier’s Lotus and Scheckter’s Wolf.

The chance to take the first pole position of his career in front of his home crowd had slipped away, but Gilles could still make history by winning the race. That Sunday already began with a historic event: the air temperature at the start was only 5°C. No Formula 1 race had ever recorded such a cold figure. A record that, to this day, has never been broken. Gilles Villeneuve’s start was far from memorable, as he was overtaken by Alan Jones. However, the Australian in the Williams then suffered a slow puncture, allowing the Ferrari talent to move back up to third. And Gilles didn’t stop there: on lap twenty-five, he passed Jody Scheckter and officially began his pursuit of Jarier for the win.

Up until that point, Gilles Villeneuve had only achieved one podium finish, at the Austrian Grand Prix. Even second place would have been fantastic, but fate had other plans: with about twenty laps to go, the Frenchman’s Lotus retired from the race due to a braking system issue.

This allowed Gilles Villeneuve to celebrate a fantastic victory — the first of his career. Not only that: it was a win achieved in extreme conditions and in Canada, in his Canada. Curiously, he celebrated not with the usual champagne, but with a beer, due to sponsor Labatt.

“Like in fairy tales,” sings Vasco Rossi in his famous song of the same name. Indeed, Gilles’ entire Formula 1 adventure was a fairy tale. A fairy tale that, sadly, had anything but a happy ending. But that is another Formula 1 Story.