Nigel Roebuck interview with Gilles
Gilles hated the breed of Grand Prix car spawned by the rules of the time.
As with todays cars those of the early 80s had a tremedous amount of downforce, but back then much of it was generated by ground effects, by shaped underbodies and all the cars had skirts to create a seal with the ground. Problem was, while these ha previously been of the sliding variety now they had to be fixed and the only way to keep them from instantly being destroyed was to create a car effectively without suspension.
This made them hellish to drive. "I probably enjoy driving for its own sake more than alot of drivers. Gilles said "but I hate these cars. Two or three years ago I used to enjoy myself 15 times a lap. Now its once every 15 laps! No one outside of F1 can know what shìt these things are to drive.
There is a moment going over a bump and turning into a corner at the same time when you lose vision. Everything goes blurred. The G forces are unblievable and the steering is ridiculously heavy, like being in a big truck with the power steering not working. Sometimes you feel you don't have the strength to pull it around the ccorner. And of course we have no suspension. You go over a bump and its like someone is kicking you in the back. Your legs are flung around against the steering rack. Your head constantly hits the back of the cockpit or the roll bar. After awhile your sides ache, your head aches, and you become aware of not enjoying driving a racing car.
I asked where a drivers most important quality was his physical strength, his stamina?"
Yes, Absolutely. The days of driving with your fingerstips are gone.Now you have to grip the wheel, simply to hold on, to get the car to turn through the corner. A lot of the art has gone out of it - nearly all, in fact." . . . . All right then, I said, define your ideal F1 car. "For me it is very simple" Gilles said. "I lover motor racing. To me it is a sport, a spectable, not a technical exervise. My ideal F1 car would have no ground effect - in fact, very little down force at all. It would have a 5-litre normally-aspirated engine., at least 800 hp, with 21 in. rear tyres. Some saw we should have narrower tyres, but I'm not in favour of that because you need big tyres to slow you down if you spin. And you need a lot of horsepower to unstick big tyres, to make the cars slide. " That would be a fantastic spectacle, I can tell you.
