Jacques and the destiny already written as son of the myth Gilles. The Japanese man nurtured with a passion for motors by his passionate father. Two different stories for two protagonists at the sports festival
In the name of speed. Of courage and style. And again: of sacrifice, of the search for the limit that separates us from perfection, of discipline and mastery of the mechanical means. Jacques Villeneuve, Yuki Tsunoda. Two special guests at the Trento Sports Festival, two different stories, two life and professional paths distant in time and development; but with some aspects in common, in that great family album that is the Circus. Jacques Villeneuve is proof that children of art are born, but then become one: and this is a much more complicated matter. Destinies twist, following stars that perhaps don’t want to know about us.
son and champion
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Champion fathers, sons who dream of him, ready to follow the same path: Jacques’ father – Gilles Villeneuve – was everything, but it was so very quickly. He left young, on a spring day in 1982, in Zolder, he was racing in a Ferrari and seemed destined for glory. Gilles crossed the sky like a flash and when we looked up he was no longer there. But the trace of light remained, the memory remained, the nostalgia remained. Jacques followed that track, that nostalgia – which belonged to everyone – Jacques transformed into something special. It wasn’t easy at all. Indeed, of all the challenges this is the most difficult: retracing the path of a road, inventing a path that is yours alone. Jacques won the 1997 world champion title on Williams, crossing a finish line that his father had never surpassed. Today he is a fifty-two year old who at the Sports Festival (12 October, Teatro Sociale, 9pm) will line up his 164 Grand Prix and 11 victories, but more than anything else he will reiterate his awareness of having mended his family history by giving a meaning to his being a pilot.
talent and precociousness
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The Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (13 October, Philharmonic, 2pm), Villeneuve could be the son. He was born in May 2000. At that time Villeneuve was twenty-nine years old, he drove the BAR-Honda 002, at the end of that season he placed seventh in the standings, collecting 17 points without ever getting on the podium. When the Japanese GP took place in Suzuka at the end of the year, it’s nice to think that Yuki – born just a few months old – was there, in front of the television, cradled by his mother, perhaps in his father’s arms, more likely going to sleep. Tsunoda today is certainly one of the most talented “in progress” drivers around, since 2021 he has been racing with Alpha Tauri. There is a father who gave the trigger to speed in his case too: Nobuaki Tsunoda was and is passionate about motorsport (despite having tested a single-seater in local Japanese racing for a certain period), it was he who took little Yuki to Nakai kart track, in the large district of Tokyo where the driver was born. And it was on that track that Yuki began racing karts at just four years old, followed closely by his father, who acted as his mechanic. Sometimes destiny uses blood ties to direct your path: this is the case of Yuki, who grew up with his father’s advice and quickly arrived where he dreamed. In fact, he was the first driver born in the new millennium to reach the premier category of car racing. So young, Yuki. Thus launched towards the future. This is an important year for Japanese. Now it’s official: the link with the Faenza team will also continue in 2024, when Tsunoda will team up with Daniel Ricciardo. In May the boy – so shy in everyday life, so ferocious when he drives – became the protagonist of a great gesture: after the flood that hit Emilia Romagna, Yuki took to the streets – in Faenza, where he lives – holding a shovel, one among many, a volunteer among volunteers, ready to clean the city streets of mud and debris. If Villeneuve left his mark on the track, Tsunoda has so far done so in civil society: it’s a good start, it’s a different way of winning.
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