The pair last spoke on the phone on Thursday night to discuss the future of their lifelong mentor and mentor and part of the McLaren Racing family. We were plotting, planning and dreaming about 2024, which seemed to have potential.
The two retired Brazilian drivers last messaged each other at Christmas and shared an affectionate chat after living together in May 2003.
“Merry Christmas, honey”
“Merry Christmas, honey.”
But as Tony Kanaan looks back on his last weekend with Gilles de Ferran, amid all the sage advice and gut-wrenching jokes during the kick-off of the busy Las Vegas Grand Prix in mid-November,・I end up wondering about what Phelan said. Almost passes by.
“I don’t feel well.”
Could it all have something to do with the sudden fatal heart attack that de Ferran, 56, suffered while behind the wheel of his car at the Concours Club on Friday afternoon? Sadly, Kanaan knows but will never know.
But just as Kanaan has always wanted to learn from his closest true friends over decades of long relationships, Kanaan, 49 years old (his birthday is New Year’s Eve), has learned some of his last lessons. It has been firmly inherited.
“My wife is like, ‘Yeah, I feel bad for him, but when was the last time he went to the doctor?'” Kanaan told IndyStar this weekend. “Basically, and I’m not kidding, she said, ‘I’m going to the Mayo (Clinic).'” So I think she’s going to go to Mayo.
“It’s kind of a wake-up call. We’re all older and we all consider ourselves athletes, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get a medical checkup. I’m sure Gil didn’t do it. But then you get angry because “you’re smart enough.”
“Helio, what happened to Gil?”
Unfortunately, Kanaan has been uniquely trained in grief over the past 30-plus years. His father died after a four-year battle with cancer when Kanaan was only 13 years old. Two of Kanaan’s closest friends in the IndyCar paddock, Greg Moore (1999) and Dan Wheldon (2011), were killed in an on-track crash during the final IndyCar race. season.
Kanaan tried to describe the pain he felt as he prepared to board a flight to Miami to join his compatriot Helio Castroneves for all the needs of De Ferran’s family.
“People always say, ‘Time heals,’ but the pain never goes away. You just get used to it,” Kanaan says, rather matter-of-factly. “You just learn to live without him. You know he’s not a replacement and you’ll think about him every once in a while. This will forever be one of those things. right.”
But you can hear the tenor in Kanaan’s change of voice as he describes the almost unimaginable way he learned the news Friday.
A legend that came too soon:2003 Indy 500 winner Gilles de Ferran dies at age 56
This text comes from fellow Brazilian racing legend Rubens Barrichello. Is Gil okay?
The comfort of Kanaan’s eight-hour flight from Brazil soon felt like a prison. It was impossible to make a frantic emergency call thousands of miles away in the air. One of his young sons was sitting inches away.
Barrichello had few details, only that de Ferran had been taken to hospital.
“It really makes my heart jump,” Kanaan said. Fearing the worst but hoping Castroneves would know better, the 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner typed out the same sentence. Helio, what happened to Gil?
Soon, a message flashed on Kanaan’s cell phone that no one wanted to receive.
call me.
“Like, (expletive),” Kanan retorted, the desperation in his voice hard to hide. He begged his lifelong friend about this, and finally his friend relented.
“And now I’m on a plane and my 7-year-old is next to me, so I can’t lose (expletive) but I’m stuck on this bloody plane and I can’t call anyone. “I’m in shock,” Kanaan said. “Everyone is in shock, but at the same time you’re also like, ‘What? What just happened?!'”
Exact details are difficult to obtain, but as far as Kanaan understands, de Ferran was sitting in the driver’s seat of a high-performance road car at a private automobile country club in Opa-locka, Florida. His son Luke was riding in the passenger seat. At one point, De Ferran told his son he didn’t feel well and stopped the car.
“And I think he had a heart attack and passed out,” Kanaan said. “And they tried to resuscitate him.”
A statement released by the Brazilian Automobile Federation late Friday night confirmed that de Ferran did suffer a heart attack and was taken to a local hospital, but his life could not be saved.
“Oh my god,[Gil]dressed up and went out because to me, we all know we’re going to die. It’s just reality,” Kanaan said. Told. “So if you said, ‘Hey, TK, if I had a choice,’ I’d say, ‘That’s right.’
“He was driving a bloody race car.”
The enduring legacy of de Ferran
Just as he had in his 20s when he was trying to make a name for himself in CART in the late ’90s, de Ferran spent his final days listening to his dearest friends. Kanaan privately wondered if he was a good enough fit for the latest chapter of the race. Just two months ago, Kanaan was promoted from Arrow McLaren’s ‘special advisor’ to sporting director, giving him a bigger and more official role in the day-to-day operations of McLaren’s IndyCar team.
In May, de Ferran was appointed to the role of consultant to the McLaren F1 side, as sporting director of McLaren Racing, spearheading the team’s return to IndyCar, with his contract up for renewal at the end of the 2020 season. This was two years later.
As Kanaan explains, much of the conversation between the two in Las Vegas didn’t center around what was happening on the track with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, but instead gave the young Brazilian a chance to get into the cockpit. That included the injection of confidence he needed to embark on his first full season since. As a manager.
“This is a big team, and when you come in and start doing something, not everyone loves you,” Kanaan said. “He told me about how you try to influence people and get them to work for you and believe in you.” You’re in the right place, not just here. ,[McLaren Racing CEO]Zac Brown has known you for 40 years, you raced together, you’re ‘TK’ and everyone says you have the right to have a job. Because I think there is.
“It was so cool. You have a best friend and you’re in school and you’re not in the same class and all of a sudden you feel like you are. We collaborate, we exchange ideas, we make things happen together. and we help each other with decisions.”
Last fall, Kanaan was somewhat reluctant to participate in the Las Vegas race. It was Mr. de Ferran’s excellent interpersonal skills and dedication to one of his closest friends that drew Kanaan there. After a weekend of stock car racing in Brazil, Kanaan hopped on a plane halfway around the world from Brazil to Abu Dhabi and spent just under 24 hours in the UAE for Pato O’Ward’s F1 Young Driver Test.
“Gil was one of those guys who could bring out the best in you (without swearing). But he was able to get his point across, saying, ‘This is what I’m doing for you.’ That’s what I want, because that’s what I need.” Kanaan said, “Immediately after Zack told me what he wanted me to do[in the future]. , I called Gil. “You have to help me.”
“At first I really thought, ‘Can you really do this?’ I think I knew you could, but you seemed to be looking for validation, and between him and Zach, it was like, ‘You’re a good guy. I didn’t ask because I thought you would. I just thought you could do the job.” . ” Gil was big in that regard.
“‘Just do what you have to do.'”
So the de Ferran disciple will spend the coming weeks and months facing head-on the challenge of returning one of racing’s biggest names to IndyCar’s victory circle after an empty 2023 campaign. He will continue to push forward with the weight of losing his team. The people who helped him get here. No one should ever unnecessarily praise a deceased person. “When someone dies, everyone says what a great person he was. You just become ‘great’” – Kanaan continues to hold on to de Ferran’s unwavering, unmistakable confidence. Dew.
After all, it was de Ferran who retired from the sport at just 35 years old, months after Roger Penske won the 2003 Indy 500, telling reporters at the time: I still enjoy what I do. ”
Following his 500 race last May, Kanaan said he went into May many times thinking it would be his last time before he could truly call it a final retirement, but now he feels like he has that level of determination. I’m wondering if there was one.
He can only hope that he now calls it that in memory of his dear friend, who was “confident,” “had his own opinion,” and was a “leader.”
“Zack has already said it, but the next win is his,” Kanaan said.
1 Comment
I liked it as much as you did. Even though the picture and writing are good, you’re looking forward to what comes next. If you defend this walk, it will be pretty much the same every time.