McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri mourn sudden death of former Sporting Director Gil de Ferran
Lando Norris and his teammate at McLaren, Oscar Piastri, offered their respect to late Indy 3000 Champion Gil de Ferran who passed away after succumbing to a sudden cardiac death in Florida.
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As the year is coming to a close, the motorsports world has been hit with some shocking news of the death of a famous figure. Former Indy 500 Champion Gil de Ferran suddenly succumbed to a heart attack and passed away at only 56 years of age. The French-Brazilian winner of the 2003 Indy 500 title was reportedly racing with his son at Concourse Club in Florida when the tragedy happened. He suffered a sudden cardiac death, and the racing world lost one of its brightest stars.
Gil de Ferran had been especially linked to Formula 1 through his contributions at McLaren. He served as their Consulting Member in the earlier days until being promoted to the role of Sporting Director in 2018. He served at the papaya army with the same designation for 3 years until he relegated to the role of a consultant for McLaren. Thus, both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have interacted with Gil and were saddened by the news of his demise.
Taking to his Instagram stories, Lando Norris grieved for Gil de Ferran.
A truly incredible guy. Thanks for all of the amazing memories and I'm going to miss the post race pep talks we had together. It was an honour getting to spend time with you these past years. I'll miss you and you'll be part of our team forever. RIP Gil.Lando Norris wrote in his Instagram story for Gil de Ferran.
Oscar Piastri mentions meeting Gil de Ferran in 2023 as McLaren’s rookie
At the end of the 2022 season, Daniel Ricciardo was ousted by McLaren as the team decided to prematurely end his contract in favor of hiring Oscar Piastri. This is because the Honey Badger failed to get Zak Brown‘s team the results they had hoped for. Hence, they chose to let him go with a payout of north of $22 million and they recruited Piastri instead. Thus, he came to meet Gil since the late French-Brazilian served an important role in the team.
Taking to his official Instagram handle, Oscar Piastri left a short note to honor Gil de Ferran.
It was a pleasure to get to know you this year. You will be greatly missed. RIP Gil.Oscar Piastri shared on his official Instagram profile.
Gil’s death also saw statments pour in from the FIA, the McLaren official X account, as well as other important racing figures like Mario Andretti. It is quite unfortunate that a prominent personnel in the world of racing passed away so suddenly because of a medical emergency in the middle of the act that he loved the most–racing.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)