With Penske, de Ferran finally got title

Mike Harris

Friday, Nov. 10, 2000 | 6:22 a.m.

As the most successful car owner in racing, Roger Penske has a pretty good eye for winners.

And the day The Captain hired Gil de Ferran, he confided to an acquaintance: "That guy will win a championship. We just have to give him the right tools."

De Ferran made that prediction a reality two weeks ago, wrapping up Penske's 10th Champ car title - and his eight in CART - with a third-place finish in the season-closing race at California Speedway.

Penske wasn't alone in his assessment of de Ferran.

"I don't think Gil ever had the right combination of equipment and people before," said new teammate and fellow Brazilian Helio Castroneves. "He's always had the ability. I've been following his career for a long time and admiring what he has accomplished. I knew he would be a champion."

De Ferran, who turns 33 Saturday, is eight years older than Castroneves.

"When he was racing in Brazil and then Europe and then the U.S., I was his fan," Castroneves said, grinning. "You might not believe that, but it is true. Gil is one of my heroes, and now we are teammates and friends. I am so happy for him."

It didn't come easily for de Ferran, though.

His first CART ride came with great innovator Jim Hall in 1995 and 1996. Even though Hall was on his way out of the sport, de Ferran managed a victory each year and was sixth in the points in 1996.

He moved to the shoestring operation of Derrick Walker in 1997 and stayed three seasons. Although he failed to win another race until 1999, de Ferran finished a distant second to Alex Zanardi in 1997 before slipping to 12th and eighth the next two years.

"I believed I was making progress with Jim Hall and Derrick Walker," de Ferran said. "Both of them helped me learn the business of racing and gave me the experience that got me to this point.

"I always felt like we could win, but we had a real handicap the last couple of years with Walker Racing."

De Ferran was alluding to Walker's decision to stick with Goodyear tires in 1998 and 1999, while the successful teams were running on Firestone.

"We could race with them for a while, but we couldn't stay with them because our tires wouldn't let us," he said. "When I moved to Penske, part of the deal was their new package with Firestone.

He believes that change - and switching to a Reynard chassis and Honda engine - was the winning combination.

Tim Cindric, who came to the Penske team as president of racing when de Ferran arrived, agreed with the driver's assessment. But he also gave de Ferran a bit more of the credit.

"He's the one who put it all together and made it happen on the race track," Cindric said. "We believed from the beginning that this team could win again after some down years if it could just develop consistency at the front of the pack."

He said de Ferran's experience and knowledge of the race car helped make it happen.

"He could work with the engineers, talk to the mechanics, understand the computer guys," Cindric said. "Gil is a guy who loves to know and understand things, and he will tell you what he thinks."

Winning the championship means a lot to de Ferran, particularly because nine drivers were still in the title chase with three races remaining.

"It's an intense thing," he said. "You go out there knowing you can't make a mistake, can't put a wheel wrong or you'll lose points that can make all the difference.

"To win it under those circumstances just makes it sweeter. And to win it for Roger Penske, who gave me this chance, is the sweetest thing of all."