Thursday, Nov. 1, 2001 | 5:31 a.m.
After consecutive CART championships, Gil de Ferran has an unsettling thought for his rivals. He's got room for improvement.
"I've been blessed to have had more success in this business than I could ever dream of, but I think I can get better," de Ferran said. "I'm 33, I'm fitter, more experienced, and I think I'm a better driver now than I was in my early 20s."
It was two hours after a fourth-place finish in the Honda Indy 300 in Surfers Paradise, Australia, gave him enough points to clinch the 2001 title. Still in his race suit, an emotional de Ferran sat in his hauler, accepting congratulations from teary-eyed members of his and rival pit crews and race teams.
Everybody, it seems, knows and likes de Ferran. A driver with a true international background, he was born in Paris to Brazilian parents, moved to Sao Paolo when he was 9 months old and raced in Brazil and England before moving to CART in 1995.
De Ferran was pleased to clinch the title with one race to go, but he's preparing for Sunday's event in Fontana., Calif., the way he always does. It's just another race day.
"I've always been one to immerse myself in everything I do," de Ferran said. "I do everything I can to dedicate myself to the team.
"Everybody watches us on race day, but there's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday before that, and hours of conversations with the team that no one ever sees in between. It really starts with winter testing, and goes on from there."
Penske knows how tough a long season can be, and lauds de Ferran for his perseverance. De Ferran saved his best finishes - including victories Sept. 22 in England and Oct. 7 in Houston - for the end of the season.
"Gil did a super job," Penske said. "He came from behind in the points and was fast and consistent when he needed to be. Gil had a lot of pressure on him. It's nice that the championship didn't go down to the wire."
De Ferran, who runs and lifts weights to stay fit, has not changed his attitude since he began racing go-karts in Brazil and won his first championship at 16. He won the Brazilian Formula Ford championship in 1987 as a 19-year-old, then moved to England.
By 1991, he was in Formula 3 and won the title the following year. Moving up to Formula 3000, de Ferran led most of the 1994 championship until being taken out by a lapped car in the final race.
He started his CART career with Hall Racing in 1995, when he won rookie honors. Since then, he has been among the top 12 drivers in the series standings.
Then, last year de Ferran moved to Team Penske, the most successful in American open-wheel racing, for the 2000 season.
"We've had a lot of success together," de Ferran said of Roger Penske, the man he calls "Mr. Auto Racing."
Last year, de Ferran won the Mario Andretti Award for being the leading vote getter on the CART all-star team and set the world closed-course speed record of 241.428 mph during qualifying in Fontana.
He's only the fourth driver to win back-to-back CART titles, joining Rick Mears (1981-82), Bobby Rahal (1986-87) and Alex Zanardi (1997-98).
De Ferran feels honored to be mentioned with the others.
"That hasn't really sunk in yet, to achieve what those guys have done," he said.
Although he hasn't patterned himself after any of them, de Ferran has retained a little from each of the racing greats who have touched his career.
"I'm fortunate to have driven for people like Jackie Stewart and Roger Penske," he said. "I was always observant of the great drivers - Rick Mears, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell.
"They are the gods of our sport, but they were all a little different. I've tried to be as analytical as I could be of their performances, sitting as I have on the outside."
With the season nearly over, de Ferran soon will have time to analyze his performances and spend some time with his family - wife Angela, a former member of the Paul Stewart Racing Team; daughter Anna and son Luke.
They help him maintain his perspective.
"As long as I feel I can continue to improve, I'll continue racing and try not to reflect on my own greatness," he said, smiling while poking fun at himself. "People will judge me and determine how I fit into the history books."
archive
