After winning the World Championship with Jody Scheckter and their T4 model in 1979, Ferrari found themselves badly wrong-footed by the advances in ground-effect technology, when they introduced the T5 version for 1980. It would be Ferrari’s worst World Championship season ever. Even their 2020 efforts were not as bad!
10-Aug-21 Chris Bowen
Their best race finishes all year were a few 5th places. Resulting in a miserable 10th place in the final Constructor’s Championship table. The drivers faired even worse. Despite all his enthusiasm, Gilles only managed to net a feeble 14th place in the Drivers Championship. While Jody (the reigning World Champion, remember) finished even further back in 19th.
By the end of the season, both drivers were struggling just to qualify for the races. Until the Canadian Grand Prix, when Jody finally didn’t. It should have been the penultimate Grand Prix before his retirement from the sport. And it would be the only time in his entire career that he’d ever failed to qualify for a race. Gilles took the attitude though, that if a chap couldn’t win, then a chap shouldn’t moan (well, maybe just a bit), he should just apply himself to having some fun instead!
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