Gil de Ferran 1967-2023

[Car-Addicted]

Gil de Ferran, the holder of IndyCar’s fastest qualifying average at 241.428mph, the two-time CART IndyCar Series champion, and winner of the 2003 Indianapolis 500, has died at the age of 56. De Ferran is believed to have suffered a heart attack while participating at an automotive event in Florida.
The French-born Brazilian rose to prominence in the early 1990s during his pursuit of Formula 1. De Ferran’s first major accomplishment was earning the 1992 British Formula 3 championship while driving for Paul Stewart Racing, following which he graduated to the fierce Formula 3000 series — known today as Formula 2 — and placed third in 1994 before earning an invitation from legendary team owner Jim Hall to sample a CART Indy car.
It was the call to join a revamped Team Penske in 2000 that allowed de Ferran’s true potential to be shown. Wielding the “Renske,” the Penske-developed Reynard 2KI-Honda-Firestone, de Ferran was a rocket, winning twice and standing on seven podiums as his mastery of roads, streets, and big and small ovals demonstrated how complete a driver he’d become.
Retiring at the end of the year, de Ferran spent time away from the sport before turning to management for a brief period as Honda’s sporting director for its F1 team. With his deep ties to the brand, he was awarded a contract to run a factory LMP2 program for Acura in the American Le Mans Series, and returned in the middle of the 2008 season as the owner/driver of the de Ferran Motorsports ARX-01b with a young Simon Pagenaud as his teammate.

https://racer.com/2023/12/29/gil-de-ferran-1967-2023/

[Car-Addicted]

Gil de Ferran, the 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner and holder of the closed-course land speed record, died Friday while racing with his son at The Concourse Club in Florida, multiple former colleagues confirmed to The Associated Press.
Fellow Brazilian driver Tony Kanaan said de Ferran was with his son, Luke, at the private course in Opa-Locka, Florida, when he pulled over and said he wasn’t feeling well. Kanaan said de Ferran apparently suffered a heart attack and could not be revived.
https://nypost.com/2023/12/30/sports...on-dead-at-56/

[///M Power-Belgium]

RIP

[M5Rick]

Why do they die so young . RIP

[M-technik-3]

Far to young, that's a year younger than I am.

[M3SQRD]

Tragic. Phenomenal race car driver and person. 56 is too young. RIP

[Car-Addicted]

Williams
Gil de Ferran
Alain Prost

[Car-Addicted]

Gil de Ferran and family: wife Angela, daughter Anna and son Luke