Scheckter and Villeneuve
Jody Scheckter had a wild reputation in his early F1 days, not helped by triggering an enormous pile-up at the 1973 British Grand Prix, but he worked on those rough edges to become a race winner with Tyrrell and a championship runner-up with Walter Wolf Racing.
Ferrari liked what they saw from the South African as his career developed and, for ‘79, put him alongside talented youngster Gilles Villeneuve, who had only recently arrived on the F1 scene and scored his first victory with the Scuderia at the end of the ‘78 season.
F1 ICONS: Melanie Villeneuve on her father Gilles, the legendary Ferrari racer
Scheckter, Villeneuve and Mauro Forghieri’s 312T4 made for a potent combination – the experienced hand doing just enough to beat his ambitious team mate to the drivers’ crown as the duo finished first and second in the standings and secured the constructors’ title.
After a much less successful ‘80 season with an updated T5 machine that failed to hit the mark, Scheckter called time on his F1 career and turned to punditry, while Villeneuve continued to represent Ferrari until a tragic, fatal accident at the ’82 Belgian Grand Prix.