René Arnoux on the 80th birthday of "Little Jo"
06/08/2022
Jo Vonlanthen, the Swiss racing driver, but above all known as the organizer of major racing car exhibitions throughout Europe, turned eighty years young on 31 May 2022.
The farmer's son from Alterswil in German-speaking Fribourg was celebrated in style on Saturday at the Meilenstein in Langenthal, where his permanent F1 racing car exhibition can be admired every day. Among the numerous guests and many celebrities in attendance was an ex-Ferrari Grand Prix driver. René Arnoux, seven-time GP winner, was there in person and celebrated late into the night.
As an absolute highlight of the evening, the final laps of the 1979 French GP in Dijon were played back with the magnificent duel between the two close friends René Arnoux in the yellow Renault Turbo and Gilles Villeneuve in the red 12-cylinder Ferrari. Probably the best duel in F1 history, with commentary by the other driver himself, naturally led to a standing ovation. Arnoux commented:
"We both had our problems with the cars, which were no longer running optimally, and so I was fighting against my best friend in Formula 1. For me, Gilles was not a racing driver, but an acrobat of the racetracks. You could only have a duel like that with him. We trusted each other and touched each other several times. After the race, which I lost to him, we had a beer and nobody could believe what happened between us in the final laps. Gilles was absolutely trustworthy and loyal on and off the track. I liked him very much. It's a great memory from my career, even though I only finished third.
I still get asked about it today, usually with the question: Who would have won the race in the end? Me or Gilles....? My answer is neither, because the winner was Jabouille, who crossed the finish line first in a turbo car for the first time, but nobody remembers that today."
