Nigel Roebuck posted something interesting in his reply to an e-mail he got from a Motor Sport reader regarding Gilles Villeneuve’s future after 1983, and after Ferrari:

Although no contract had been signed, Gilles had agreed with Ron Dennis that he would drive for McLaren, returning to the team which had given him his first Grand Prix drive, at Silverstone in 1977. And when you think about it, had that come to be, the course of F1 history might have turned out very differently, for the McLaren team would have been Lauda and Villeneuve, and there would have been no place — in 1984 — for Prost.

In John Barnard´s MP4-2, Lauda and Prost dominated that year, Niki beating his team-mate to the championship by half a point, and in ´85 and ´86 Alain won the first two of his four titles. Gilles in an MP4-2… quite a thought, isn´t it?

That’s quite intriguing to Mattijs and myself. We might consider changing the story we have on Villeneuve versus Prost, either its setting, e.g. with Villeneuve at McLaren and Prost elsewhere, or its basics, creating a more prominent role for Lauda.

We’ll keep you posted.